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Role of media during elections April 28, 2013

MOHAMMAD JAMIL

This is the first time in the history of Pakistan that elections are being held after the assemblies

and elected governments have completed their five-year term. Moreover, the neutral caretakergovernments are in place as per provisions of the Constitution duly amended by the previous

National Assembly. Yet there is added significance this time round – judiciary and media are

independent today.

The question is what sort of role media should play before and during elections. Of course, all the

reporting and visual coverage of the political parties should be done in an impartial manner. It

means that they should not be preferential treatment to a particular political party. However, the

situation on ground is that some print media organizations, while reporting, and TV channels in

their visual coverage try to show only a part of a big public meeting to prove that it is aninsignificant rally.

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On the other hand, using camera tricks they display the size of a small rally as a mammoth

meeting, showing utter disregard to journalistic ethics and the fundamental principle i.e.

reporting should be factual and without getting emotionally involved. If one is emotionally 

involved, one would either take side or oppose a political party or a candidate. In other words,

reporting should be objective and not subjective. However, rumours abound that some media

men and media groups have received huge amounts from the political parties for their projection,

and in some cases from individual candidates to portray them somewhat larger than life. In such

cases, it becomes difficult for an honest and conscientious journalist or anchorperson to perform

his duties honestly. In these circumstances, he has two options; either to resign or disobey the

owners to perform duties honestly. And if he goes for the second option, he will be sacked.

There are two sides of reporting an election campaign: covering what the politicians are saying

and investigating the issues that are being discussed. Of course, the politicians are entitled to say 

 what they want to, and the voters are entitled to hear them. But journalists have a responsibility 

to question and examine all that is said. Anchorpersons need to ask tough questions on behalf of 

the audience but they should not become obstreperous or uncouth. Of course, they should be

aware of the public sentiments, and know what questions the audience would like to ask if they 

are interviewing a political party’s leader or representative. 

The politicians indeed would like to talk about what suits them, but the journalist needs to take

an independent view of what is important to the voters. He needs to decide what the big issues

are and present them, setting out the basic facts while making clear what different parties have to

say about them.But they should tell the truth where facts are involved, and make it clear what a factual story is

and what the journalist's or the newspaper's opinion is. If the journalist’s newspaper or TV 

channel is backing one side, he should keep the comment separate from the news. But it seems to

 be a Herculean task, because truth is bitter and harsh.

 Whether it was the PPP-led government at the centre, in Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber-

Pakhtunkhwa or the PML-N led government in Punjab, they all failed to deliver. The PPP is

highlighting Benazir Income Support Programme and the PML-N is trying to capitalise on

laptops’ distribution and Metro-Bus Project in Lahore. Throughout the country, corruption has

 become so rampant in the polity that it is now part and parcel of the national life. It cuts across

the polity, having enveloped its every segment and sparing not even its private sector. For having

a legitimate job done hassles-free palms have to be greased in government offices and state

institutions.

If corruption and malfeasance have run wild in the polity, the goddess of wealth and money has

 blinded its segments after segments that they have lost every touch with the sense of shame. Tax

evasion is not being considered an offence or a sin. The landed aristocracy is wallowing in wealth

due to windfall earnings from their crops and hugely generous government-support prices. Big

 businesses and industries fiddle with their books and in collusion with corrupt taxmen evade the

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tax due from them.

On the other hand, the people of Pakistan are passing through the harrowing experiences they 

never did before in their lifetimes. Despite the vows about keeping the tax-evaders, bank 

defaulters and land mafia out of the election process, they have been allowed to participate in the

elections, which is a big question mark on the ECP and even the judiciary. With the stories of 

palmed off media men receiving huge amounts and plots from a property tycoon, the people

seem to have lost faith in the elections. How they can restore their image is a million dollar-

question.

Roles the Media Play in Elections

The media play an indispensable role in the proper functioning of a democracy. Discussion of the

media's functions within electoral contexts, often focuses on their "watchdog" role: by unfettered

scrutiny and discussion of the successes and failures of candidates, governments, and electoral

management bodies, the media can inform the public of how effectively they have performed and

help to hold them to account. Yet the media also have other roles in enabling full public

participation in elections:

  by educating voters on how to exercise their democratic rights;

  by reporting on the development of an election campaign;

  by providing a platform for the political parties and candidates to communicate their

message to the electorate;

  by providing a platform for the public to communicate their concerns, opinions, and

needs, to the parties/candidates, the EMB, the government, and to other voters, and to

interact on these issues;

  by allowing the parties and candidates to debate with each other;

  by reporting results and monitoring vote counting;

  by scrutinizing the electoral process itself, including electoral management, in order to

evaluate the process’s fairness, efficiency, and probity; 

  by providing information that as far as possible avoids inflammatory language, to help

prevent election-related violence.

The media are not the sole source of information for voters, but in a world dominated by mass

communications, it is increasingly the media that determine the political agenda, even in less

technologically developed countries. A report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies put

it this way:

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The media plays a major role in keeping the citizenry abreast of current events

and raising awareness of various issues in any society. It also has an extremely

significant impact on the public’s views and way of thinking. The media is the

primary means through which public opinion is shaped and at times manipulated.

If this is the media’s role then in normal course of events, it becomes even more

vital in exceptional periods, one of which is electoral junctures, when the media

becomes a primary player. Elections constitute a basic challenge to the media,

putting its impartiality and objectivity to the test. The task of the media,

especially national media outlets, is not and should not be to function as a

mouthpiece for any government body or particular candidate. Its basic role is to

enlighten and educate the public and act as a neutral, objective platform for the

free debate of all points of view.[i] 

It is for this reason that election observation teams, for example, routinely comment upon media

access and coverage of elections as a criterion for judging whether elections are fair. Monitoring

the media during election periods has become an increasingly common practice, using a

combination of statistical analysis and the techniques of media studies and discourse analysis to

measure media’s role in an election. 

The numerous ways in which media ensure democratic electoral processes generally fall into one

of the following categories:

  Media as transparency/watchdog

  Media as a campaign platform

  Media as open forum for debate and discussion/public voice

  Media as public educator

Each of these categories is explored in separate sections.

[i]  “Media and Parliamentary Elections in Egypt: Evaluation of Media Performance in the

Parliamentary Elections”  Human Rights Movement Issues 26, (Cairo, Egypt: Cairo Institute for

Human Rights Studies, 2011): 27