Media should live by standards and codes of its profession

The phone call was made immediately after the 7 a.m. news bulletin. The director of the state-run Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, who had been appointed by the ruling party and was known as a supporter, was demanding to know why the producer had led with a story from the opposition leader.

Far from an isolated experience, this was one of many angry phone calls and complaints the newsroom received during their coverage of the 1993 national election.

“It was a tense period, as the newsroom was divided with some reporters supporting the opposition party, and others subservient to the ruling party,” recalls veteran journalist Milton Walker. “The atmosphere was highly charged around election times, as the station would be attacked verbally.”

In a new book – Eyes of Democracy: The Media and Elections - published by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr Walker’s account is one of seven testimonies from journalists about their experiences covering elections across the Commonwealth.

Jumping ahead 15 years, Mr Walker describes the media’s role during last year’s elections in Jamaica.

“It’s in the coverage of political matters that I believe we made the most valuable contribution to the deepening of our democracy,” he writes. “For the first time, the opposition and civil society had a reasonable opportunity to voice its concern about government policy and put forward alternative views on television, the most powerful medium in Jamaica.”

As well as testimonies from Fiji Islands, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, and Trinidad and Tobago, the book is also packed full of examples of Commonwealth Observer Groups and the various elections they have been involved with.

Extracts of Commonwealth Observer Group reports following elections in The Gambia, Guyana, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are included.

The book is written by Manoah Esipisu, Deputy Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and Isaac Kaguli, a lecturer in digital and new media at Wits University in South Africa.

“I felt a text that allows students and journalists to have a broad historical, political, social and theoretical understanding of the role of the media in covering elections would be useful and that’s what we set out to deliver,” explained Mr Esipisu.

“If this text helps such journalists on their path to providing top-quality coverage, then we’d consider it an achievement.”

Eyes of Democracy begins by putting the role of the media in context and outlining its role as a “sustainer of democracy”. It then examines significant issues in reporting an election and looks at how new technologies, such as mobile phones, have changed the electoral landscape.

The authors conclude that the media should:

· Live by the standards and codes of its profession, which includes ending the practice of taking bribes.

· Understand the legal environment in which it operates.

· Ensure the media’s own place in society is guaranteed.

· Follow technological changes closely because of the challenges and opportunities they bring.

· Be brave enough to take on the challenges required to safeguard democracy, but also understand that no story is big enough to die for.

In the Foreword to this book, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma writes: “The media may take an election by surprise, but an election should never surprise the media.

“Its task is to be informed, to be prepared, to be investigative and to be ready and willing to look beyond headlines and into the meat of articles and interviews which probe the issues of democracy – fully and fairly.”

Secretariat Links:

• Democracy and Consensus Building

Related Websites:

• Publications