Aside from the question of what Media Access to Polling Stations the media will enjoy, there is the rather separate question of how they may report the vote as it proceeds. It is generally good practice to stop all direct access programming - party election broadcasts and advertisements - before the actual voting begins. The danger otherwise is of tactically targeted advertising based upon early assessments of how the vote is proceeding. That would be unfair and would offer no possibility of reply.
Some electoral laws or guidelines lay down specific restrictions on news coverage as well, on the basis that late coverage of campaign issues could have an undue influence. In particular, there is often a prohibition, voluntary or statutory, on reporting opinion poll findings.
The Montenegrin election reporting regulations prohibit publicly funded media from publishing either previous election results or 'any predictions whatsoever about the election outcome before the polling stations are closed on the election day'. (See Montenegro: law on state election broadcasting)
There are, of course, a variety of factors that may influence the vote as it progresses. Voter turnout is an important issue, since high or low turnouts are generally reckoned to favour one party or another. This may sometimes be the subject of some restriction.
In practice these issues can usually be resolved by professional practice and sensible self-regulation. The British Broadcasting Corporation offers these guidelines to its producers on election day coverage:
Polling day reporting at all elections must avoid any references to election issues and, until the close of poll, we restrict ourselves to factual news about the election. Public opinion polls and reviews of the morning papers may be included. So too may statements of news importance by the parties, but we must ensure that counter-statements by opposing parties are broadcast as well.
(See
United Kingdom: BBC guidelines on election coverage.)
