It may often be the case that an existing regulatory body will take on the function of supervising aspects of media coverage of elections, either on its own or in conjunction with the election administration itself.
This was the approach taken, for example, in the South African elections in 1999 - although in the 1994 elections there had been an entirely separate institution, the Independent Media Commission, devoted exclusively to the media and elections. In 1999, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the constitutionally mandated body that regulated all public, private and community broadcasting, issued regulations governing a series of issues:
- Advertising and election broadcasting
- Timing of election broadcasting
- A formula for allocating election broadcast time to different parties
- General observations on the quality of coverage expected.
The latter section includes this general observation:
Every broadcaster who transmits news or current affairs programmes in respect of the elections shall do so in an impartial and objective manner and in a manner which treats all parties fairly.
In an annex to the regulations, the authority went on to elaborate what were the responsibilities of broadcasters (and the role of the IBA):
The Authority does not intervene in the news and programming operations of the broadcasters. Broadcasters' role during elections does not differ from their normal journalistic role during non-election periods. Normal ethical considerations will continue to apply. A distinguishing feature of the election period is the obligation to achieve equitable coverage of political parties without abdicating news value judgements.
See South Africa: IBA Guidelines on election coverage and South Africa: IBA Formula for allocating party broadcasting
Italy is another country where the existing media regulators have principal responsibility for supervising media coverage of elections. In that case there are two separate bodies: a parliamentary commission that has responsibility for public broadcasting and a Guarantor for radio, television and the press, who is responsible for the privately-owned media. Both institutions make regulations governing coverage by the respective media sectors in elections (see An Existing Regulatory Body - Italy).
