“The right to freedom of expression is without a doubt one of the most important rights in any democracy. Cliché as this may sound, this right is the cornerstone of democracy and as a means of ensuring the enjoyment of all the other rights, including the right to vote. Therefore, the role of media in ensuring a free and fair election in a democracy cannot be overemphasised,” said Advocate Pansy Tlakula, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (IEC), in her opening address to a media workshop held in Sandton, Johannesburg, today. The workshop was held to address the need for guidelines for media coverage of elections in South Africa.
Several media groupings, including the Press Council of South Africa, Print and Digital Media South Africa, the National Community Radio Forum, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association of Independent Publishers, and a number of media practitioners attended the workshop.
The IEC has identified as one of its strategic objectives the strengthening of electoral democracy, by among others, encouraging citizen participation, facilitating platforms for political dialogue, cultivating an environment for free and fair elections, and engaging the media.
The workshop began with Miss Zoe Titus, Executive Director of the Media Institute Southern Africa (MISA), explaining the value of the voluntary guidelines recently adopted by the South African Development Community (SADC) for the media covering electoral processes.
Dr Haron Mwangi, CEO of the Media Council of Kenya, shared with the audience how the unfortunate events around Kenya’s 2007/2008 elections resulted in the media reflecting on their role in the conflict. This began the process which culminated in the media voluntarily adopting guidelines regulating the coverage of elections, which have since successfully been applied in the ensuing election.
Following a brief outline of the ambit of the MISA Guidelines on Media Coverage of Elections in the SADC region, the IEC facilitated a panel discussion between representatives of all the media groupings present.
In general, the media groupings expressed appreciation for the ethos of the guidelines and agreed to consider these with their various constituencies. It was resolved that the media groupings would do their utmost to revert to the IEC within two months – that is, by mid-August – with the feedback of their members.
In recent years, a number of protocols, charters, conventions and guidelines have been endorsed, signed and ratified by the South African government on the continent to entrench the role of the media in our democracy and electoral processes. These include:
- The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981)
- The Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press (1991)
- The African Charter on Broadcasting (2001)
- The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa, adopted by formal resolution by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (2002)
- The SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2004)
- The Southern African Broadcasting Association: Guidelines and Principles for Broadcast Coverage of Election in the SADC Region (2005)
- The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007).
For media queries:
Kate Bapela
Cell: 082 600 6386
For media interviews please email requests to: spokesperson@elections.org.za.
