The Media Experts Commission (MEC) in Bosnia-Herzegovina was established in 1996 by the Provisional Election Commission (PEC). The PEC in turn had been established by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Dayton Peace Agreement had required the OSCE to do this as part of its mandate to organize elections. The PEC's mandate was one of 'supervising all aspects of the electoral process' and creating the structures to ensure 'free and fair elections'. The MEC was, essentially, a delegated body carrying out these functions in relation to the media. The PEC also established an Election Appeals Sub-Commission (EASC), which considered complaints, including cases referred from the MEC.
The MEC's mandate was twofold:
- To enforce media compliance with the PEC's election regulations
- To campaign for journalists' freedom of expression.
The PEC's regulations required among other things:
- Equitable access to the media for all political parties
- A prohibition on inflammatory or hate language
- Prompt correction of inaccuracies
- An obligation on the media to present accurate and balanced information
The MEC also produced its own specific media guidelines. These provided that every media outlet had to provide fair coverage and equitable access to all political parties. Television and radio stations were also required to provide free direct access slots for political parties.
The MEC was initially composed of 12 members: two from the OSCE, three from the Republika Sprska, three from the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, two from the Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina, one from the Office of the High Representative and the chairperson, who was an international appointee. Thus the composition was eight representatives from the various Bosnian governmental structures and four international representatives. This was later expanded to 17, with two more international members and three from the local media.
The initial structure of the MEC was supplemented by three additional sub-structures:
- Media Experts Sub-Commissions (MESCs) provided a local and regional presence for the MEC.
- Media Monitoring Centre gathered basic quantitative and qualitative information on media output.
- Media Access Support Teams (MAST) facilitated regular contact between media organizations and political parties.
In the 1998 elections, MEC had a central staff of seven. In addition the MMC had 41 monitors in the field and 25 attached to OSCE headquarters. The MESCs had six regional press officers and support staff, while MAST had 17 staff.109
