Some countries practice a blackout on all election news before or during voting. Usually, this is a voluntary arrangement. This is almost always preferable, since the alternative would be for the regulatory body to intervene to prohibit coverage if the rule were breached - a less than happy outcome. However, in those instances - most famously France - where a 'reflection period' is decreed by law, then the regulatory body is likely to have some responsibility for enforcing it. In Israel, for example, which has the most extensive prohibition on campaign news, the Independent Broadcasting Authority is required to police its observance. The implementation of this prohibition illustrates the dangers inherent in such restrictions: the IBA tends to interpret the application of the law in a particularly strict manner, to avoid being held responsible for its breach.58
Estonian law divides its election campaign into four periods, with a blackout of election campaigning for three of them. The application (or nomination) period, the voting period and the counting and publication of results are all periods when campaigning is forbidden. In Barbados, the law requires that these be no direct access broadcast on the eve of the election, or on election day itself. See Barbados: law on election broadcasting.
The Media Experts Commission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (see Specialist Media and Elections Regulator - Bosnia) was an example of a regulatory body that vigorously enforced a blackout from 24 hours before polls opened in the 1998 presidential elections until the polls closed. It did this by issuing clear statements in advance of the blackout period and then relying on the findings of its own media monitoring unit. It concluded that most of the violations of the blackout were a consequence of uncertainty in applying the rules. One television channel, for example, when it broadcast film of candidates at polling stations mentioned the names of their parties - which it was not allowed to do. In one case regarded by the MEC as more serious, a station broadcast interviews with two political leaders. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe referred the case to the Election Appeals Sub-Commission (EASC), the complaints body, which struck nine candidates of the party from its election list. The MEC itself commented that most countries, in most conditions, would probably regard such an approach as draconian, unnecessary and an interference with media freedom.59
For further information on the practice of news blackouts, see News Blackouts/'Reflection Period'.
