Conferences & Events
Covering Elections: The Broadcaster's Responsibilities
by Ben Egbuna, Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
Democracy has opened a new vista in the affairs of man such that it now seems the world is caught in another global movement of ideas. And elections, the mainstay of functional democracies, have become synonymous with the ballot box since elections have been accepted universally as a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracies.
Therefore, democratic elections should not be merely symbolic; they should be a definitive exercise of choice by the electorate. Elections should be competitive and inclusive. In other words, for elections to be truly a useful decision making tool, they must be free and fair and the electorate must be informed. This is where the broadcaster comes in because often, especially in my part of the world, Africa, there are fierce disputes about the character of an election and questions about the level of information available to the electorate; was the election conducted according to the rules? Were the contestants treated equally? Was the electorate adequately informed about the candidates, the parties and issues in the election?
To help achieve political stability, the broadcaster’s actions before, during and even after elections should tilt toward conflict prevention and abatement if it becomes inevitable. This Conference provides an opportunity for me to share our experience and concerns from the Nigerian and perhaps the African broadcasters’ perspective on election coverage.
Media coverage is a crucial component of elections and it is of vital importance that broadcasters handle election campaigns and the elections themselves in a manner that is fair, just, equitable and innovative. In practice, elections are seldom without rancour. Indeed, everywhere in the world elections are periods of strife, tension and in some instances violence.
What makes discussion on the broadcaster’s responsibilities in election coverage very important is the pervasive assumption that modern broadcasters control citizens’ responses especially the gullible, who are prone to irrational actions. If this is so, there is need for broadcasters themselves to be mindful of their conduct, how they use the media and what roles they play before, during and after elections.
As I worked on the theme of my paper, a query about what the ideal election coverage is agitated my mind. This is because while the role of the media in nation building, including election coverage, is clear, execution of the broadcaster’s role in election coverage appears to me to be rather contextual, and finds full expression in a given country’s bureaucratic traditions, political development and social history.
Universally, broadcasters, as public trustees, have public interest obligations, some of which are imposed on them by the political establishment or government and some of which are met voluntarily. It must be admitted that some of the voluntarily discharged obligations are in fact good business for the broadcaster while others flow from the professional demands or functions of the media to inform and educate.
For their information needs on the policies and programmes of the political parties in an election, as well as about the candidates, the electorate look up to broadcasters who they consider custodians of the people’s right to know. Therefore, the broadcaster should not see the election information he disseminates as a privilege, but as an obligation that enhances the capacity of the voting citizen to make an informed choice. The broadcaster should mount impartial voter education programme, telling the electorate why and how to vote based on the electoral guidelines produced by the country’s legislature or electoral body or the broadcast organisation itself.
Usually only a small percentage of the voters are in a position to know the candidates well enough and thus rely on the media for information on the manifestoes and other publications of the candidates and their political parties. The broadcaster should provide access to the candidates and political parties to present their programmes to the electorate. It is a duty of the broadcaster to encourage public discussion on these programmes.
The broadcaster would also be required to meet minimum standards or universal expectations of fairness, accuracy, and balance for election coverage by:
• Ensuring direct access programmes are broadcast at no cost to the parties on an equitable basis according to the rules set by the society’s electoral body or by the broadcaster. This should be widely publicised.
• Ensuring equal right of reply is provided to all parties.
• Reporting election news fairly, accurately and professionally; clearly distinguishing fact from comments.
• Cessation of access programmes before voting commences and on the day(s) of election as provided by the country’s law.
• Retaining editorial control over its news and other programmes, no matter the lure of commercial sponsorship or other considerations by parties, authorities and candidates.
• Reflecting Direct Access Coverage of all shades of opinion in programmes. Opposition to the governing party have a right to be heard, especially in publicly funded media. The more access opponents have the more sustainable a given democracy becomes and more ideal the electoral process.
As we have observed, cultural diversity does impact on how the broadcaster carries out his responsibilities during elections. The history of broadcasting in post colonial Africa, especially for radio, is one characterised by turbulence introduced into governance by the military, which perceived radio as the instrument for violent acquisition of power. The crisis generated by the October 1965 elections into the Western Region of Nigeria House of Assembly changed the broadcasting business significantly. With conflicting results emanating from the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service, Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service and the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation, made the media partisan therefore, polarising the nation. The ignoble role of the media in the 1965 elections in the Western Region of Nigeria obviously led to the introduction of rules on media coverage of elections in subsequent Electoral Acts and guidelines on political broadcasts in the Nigeria Broadcast Code. Also, the laws establishing public radio and TV stations in the country oblige them to draw up guidelines for the coverage of elections. These guidelines are meant for the broadcasters, parties and candidates involved in the elections and all persons who in anyway would participate in political broadcasts on the stations.
These regulatory measures are in recognition that in addition to being crucial in a democracy as they educate citizens on their rights and obligations, broadcasters are a potent tool of great influence on the conduct of elections.
To avoid the debacle of the 1965 elections in Nigeria, the broadcaster should often reframe issues in ways that make conflict tractable and assist parties in reframing issues, and in formulating possible solutions. The broadcaster’s responsibilities also include helping to maintain or achieve a balance of power between the contending parties, or working to strengthen the morally superior position. This prescription can be summarised as: in time of national emergency national interest should be promoted above all legalities and should override personal ambition.
While in developed democratic societies election opinion and exit polls have become routine in election coverage, these have been avoided by broadcasters in Nigeria, not because these cannot be done but because of the likely implications before and after elections. It is simply considered unwise and dangerous for three main reasons.
• Politics in most of Africa and the developing countries is still rudimentary and crude. An opinion poll could create a bandwagon effect in an election. An election opinion or exit poll that is off the mark could engender unimaginable crisis.
• Africa is experiencing demographic transition and therefore very volatile; and
• Democracy in Africa is nascent and fragile.
The challenges of elections coverage for us remain enormous. If you add up the totality of our experience at democracy, it will come to about 20 years. When compared to over 200 years of experience behind older democracies, we find that ours is Morning yet on Creation Day. If we recall the hiccups of the American presidential election of 2000, we console ourselves that even after garnering vast democratic experience, the American political system also has its own challenges. And that hiccup tended to confirm the views in Nigeria that opinion and exit polls can be, and often times are unrealistic, indeed injurious to a society with a precarious political culture.
In facing the challenges of election coverage, we must recognise that democracy varies from society to society; that in attaining the ideals, a people must have to depend on their history, their culture, their tradition and their values. We do not have to imitate or copy the ways of the West, which have over the centuries evolved their own ways of doing things, including how their broadcasters cover elections based on their own experience, values and cultures. Of course, I recognise that there are universal democratic values, principles and conventions of elections coverage by broadcasters but our challenge is to evolve a successful and adaptable system understood by the people, and which they are also a part of; a system which the people see as part of them, one which mirrors their aspirations, one rooted in values they can identify with.
In this regard, while for instance, the issues in an American election may be abortion, the right of citizens to bear arms, same-sex marriage, taxes and such others that we may consider mundane, even laughable, our own challenge is concerned with the very existence of the polity as a single indivisible entity. While most western democracies take nationhood and statehood for granted, we cannot afford that luxury, because centrifugal forces are still very prominent in our midst. While in the West the subordination of the Military to constitutional civil authority is taken as given, we cannot help but continue to worry about the stability of our nations. These are challenges that have regional, even national colouration. So the challenges of democratic governance will differ from one society to another.
By the same token, the responsibilities of broadcasters in the different societies vary. While an enlightened citizenry, vast in the way of democracy due to many years of practice and high level political awareness can mobilise as citizens-action-groups to articulate their demands on the political system, it is difficult to do so in many African countries due to socio-economic problems and the level of political development. Broadcasters are expected, therefore, to help the citizens articulate and aggregate their demands and present same to the political system in a non-threatening way.
The responsibilities of broadcasters in African countries will include building consensus, an ingredient very necessary for political participation. This is an enormous challenge for societies that are highly fractionalised on all fronts – religious, ethnic, social and economic. Experiences elsewhere have shown that democracy does not thrive in such a milieu. Fostering transparency, accountability and the rule of law, managing the various forms of freedom that democracy engenders, contending with centrifugal forces and demilitarising the political psyche of a people that have lived for decades under military dictatorships are also challenges, which effective communication will help to sort out. The broadcaster by both training and calling is well positioned to carry the society along.
Because of the peculiar circumstance of the nations of the world, democracy tends to be less standardised; so also are the responsibilities of interest groups in an election, including the broadcaster.
I thank the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, which in a short title captured a topic of immediate relevance to many of its members, most of whom are undergoing steady political transition and evolution.