The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 is the definitive statement of principle on human rights. It contains two Articles, 19 and 21, that are fundamental to the obligations of governments regarding the role of media in elections. The first of these, Article 19, guarantees the right to freedom of expression. The second, Article 21, guarantees the right to take part in periodic secret elections.
The UDHR imposes obligations upon all members of the international community. But, as a declaration, it is only what is termed customary international law. With the adoption of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, these same provisions were amplified and given the force of binding and enforceable law over all those states that ratified. Article 19 of the ICCPR states in part:
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
Article 25 of the ICCPR states in part:
Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in Article 2 [distinctions of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status] and without unreasonable restrictions:
...(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors.
Taken together, these two provisions have been understood to impose an obligation on governments to ensure the diversity and pluralism of the media during election periods (see Obligation of Pluralism).
The main regional human rights treaties - the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights - contain a similar combination of guarantees of the right to freedom of expression and information and the right to political participation without discrimination.
The documents adopted by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe go a step further. In the Copenhagen Document of 1990, the participating states of the CSCE committed themselves to ensure:
That no legal or administrative obstacle stands in the way of unimpeded access to the media on a non-discriminatory basis for all political groupings and individuals wishing to participate in the electoral process.
The CSCE documents are not treaties and therefore do not have the same binding force. But they have been accepted as part of customary international law and therefore impose obligations on participating states.
The decisions of both international and national tribunals give greater detail and substance to these broad principles on media and elections. They can be summarized as follows:
See International Treaties on media and elections for fuller texts of these international treaties.
