Many in the media would see a system of self-regulation in elections as an ideal solution. This clearly works best where there are well-entrenched independent media and a long tradition of democratic elections, so that the solutions adopted to the problems of election coverage are sanctified by long-established practice.
Perhaps the best-known example of this approach is in Britain, where direct access Party Election Broadcasts are allocated by a joint committee of broadcasters and political party representatives. This is a strange hybrid solution, since the requirement for Party Election Broadcasts is established in law. The broadcasters then use the rough division of direct access broadcasters as a guideline for measuring their own allocation of time to the different parties in the course of news programmes. (See Self-Regulation - United Kingdom.)
Denmark also has a self-regulating system. The law forbids paid political advertising but says nothing about how (or whether) other forms of direct access broadcasting should be allocated. In practice, the public Danmarks Radio has allocated direct access slots equally between all parties running for parliament. This approach has been reinforced by decisions of the Ombudsman and Supreme Court, but is essentially voluntary. Danmarks Radio also traditionally broadcasts a panel debate involving all political parties. Also, the last day before the election, television has been kept free of election broadcasts. However, the advent of private independent television has led to some changes in this tradition: the new TV2 also held a pre-election panel debate, but excluded some smaller parties, while it also introduced election coverage the day before the vote.50
However, it has not only been long-established democracies that have adopted a self-regulatory approach. Before the independence elections in Namibia in 1989, the state-controlled South West Africa Broadcasting Corporation (as it was then known) invited political parties to join a standing committee to consult on election coverage. The committee agreed on a schedule of direct access slots, although it was not able to address the problem of biased news coverage.51
The state broadcaster in another Southern African country, Zimbabwe, also tried to adopt a self-regulating approach towards direct access slots. This was prompted by a series of highly controversial advertisements for the ruling party in the 1990 election, which many saw as being in poor taste. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation established a special committee before the 1995 elections in an attempt to avoid a recurrence of the problem. But, as in Namibia, it was not able to provide a serious solution to the problem of biased news coverage.
Hungary in 1990 also adopted a self-regulating approach. National television and the news agency, in collaboration with representatives of 12 political parties and the Independent Lawyers Forum, drafted a voluntary Electoral Code of Ethics. All the major parties adopted the code, along with most major news organizations.52
The state-owned Polish Radio and Television have adopted an approach that is similar to the BBC. Allocation of direct access broadcasting is the responsibility of the State Electoral Commission, but in their campaign news coverage radio and television are answerable only to the National Broadcasting Council, the general regulatory body. The management of Polish Radio and Television have issued detailed guidelines to staff, including the following:
[Polish Radio and Television should] provide comprehensive coverage of the campaign and information about the candidates. News and current affairs programmes should provide extensive information about the parties, their election platforms and candidates, without any bias in favour or against any party and without promoting any set of political views. The main principle should be equality of access which puts channel controllers, programme departments and regional stations under an obligation to maintain records of the amount of airtime devoted to particular parties or candidates and to make sure that principle of equality is honoured. (See Poland: laws and regulations on election broadcasting)
