INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Democratic Elections and Media

The 3-month project was supported by UNESCO as its programme on Promoting freedom of expression and communication development and sub-programme on Supporting development of communication media.

Project aimed to support independent media and promote self-regulation and it achieved its immediate objectives to:

- introduce the media owners, editors and journalists with international standards on election coverage
- inform them on the best practices of international media as BBC, ABC, CBS and others

2 workshops were orgainsed on 16th and 17th June 2004 at Lobby Center and involved in total 42 participants-journalists and journalism teachers.

Workshop participants actively discussed and debated key issues of election coverage and they raised the following problems and challenges they face in their work.

- State censorship is still existed even though it is prohibited by the Media Freedom Law

- Mongolian National Radio and TV is still under the Government control so it is impossible to be independent

- It is a reality that journalists work under pressure of media leaders and owners

- Financial issues of election coverage are one of the biggest problems because media owners want to generate more income using election campaign and media serve those who are in the power or those candidates, who are able to pay more money.

- It is noted that there are no possibilities to follow ethical principles due to censorship and threat of the ruling party and oppositions

- Unfavourable defamation legislation, for example, arrest of Erdenetuya, journalist of One Day of Mongolia, weekly newspaper just before World Press Freedom.

- Self-censorship is very high so Mongolian journalists cannot be brave to expose election manipulations and cheats

- Journalists' organization is not capable to protect journalists' rights

- It is not a secret that some journalists serve those, who pay for them

- Election laws of Mongolia are contradictory to international standards, for example media related provisions oblige all the media outlets to provide balanced election coverage. But international standards permit private print media to openly announce their preferences during the election campaigns

- It is not a secret that Mongolian media is biased so hidden advertising is always in the media, particularly in broadcast media

Publications:
The project has produced and printed 2 brochures with goal to introduce the Mongolian journalists, media professionals, politicians and the public with international standards of broadcasting coverage of elections. A key focus of democratic demand for free and fair elections has been a need for access to television and radio. Transitional democracy faces problems not faced by well-established democracy in seeking to ensure the fairness of broadcast coverage of elections campaigns.

Mongolian broadcasters lack good experiences covering elections fairly because the national broadcaster is still controlled by the government and there are 2 new private broadcasters owned by high officials of the ruling party have started functioning. That is why these publications are useful sources and could serve as main reference documents in future elections.

Brochures distributed to media outlets, journalism schools, politicians, civil society groups and workshop participants mentioned below

Brochure1 Guidelines on Covering Elections (Mongolian)

The brochure includes a comparative study of election coverage guidelines of 10 countries produced by Globe International's lawyers and translations of the guidelines. It involves 5 public broadcasters and Election Authorities of democracies such as ABC, BBC, CBS and New Zealand Broadcasting Authorities, and 5 from transitional democracies such as Estonia, Cambodia, Hungary, Macedonia and Moldavia.

Brochure 2 Elections and Broadcast Media (Mongolian)

Brochure includes translations of a set of Principles on media coverage of elections and Guidelines for Election Broadcasting in Transitional Democracies produced by ARTICLE 19. It contains international and comparative law, standards and jurisprudence that underpin the right to freedom of political communication, including the right of parties and candidates to express their views freely through the mass media and right of the public to hear those views. It also addresses the right of citizens to sufficient, balanced information to enable them to participate fully in elections of their government. Comparative study was carried out in 41 countries.

Brochure introduces the journalists with the Guidelines, which address the obligations of the governments to inform the public and apply to public-service broadcasters- media which are supported entirely or in part by government funds

Project conducted evaluation survey among the public and journalists after the completion of project activities. It was aimed at testing public opinion how Mongolian media was balanced and fair during the Parliamentrain Elections held in June 27, 2004 and exposing challenges and difficulties that Mongolian journalists face in covering elections.

- How did Mongolian Media act during the 2004 Parliamentarian Elections?
- How Mongolian Journalists Covered the 2004 Parliamentarian Elections?

Conclusion:

1. Journalists experience strong censorship while exercising thier professional duties
2. Implementation of Media Freedom Law is not sufficient and media freedom is strictly limited in the practice.
3. Media cannot be fair and serve the public interest in the case if media environment is not favourable, particularly immediate liberalisation of Mongolian Radio and TV is important
4. Media guidelines on election coverage are urgent need in Mongolia.
5. Journalsts need efficient short-term training on election coverage
6. Journalists' organisation is not capable to protect journalists' rights

Future strategy/Recommendation

Globe International is keen to continue activities to safeguard and promote independent media and legal reform so we recommend the international donors to support following actions.

Recommendations

- Encourage immediate legislation of public service broadcasting
- Conduct wide campaign against censorship
- Conduct monitoring on breaches of Media Freedom Law and journalists' rights
- Promote drafting National Principles on Election Coverage of broadcast media, particularly TV guidelines cooperating with General Election Committee and political parties, which are based on international standards
- Promote development of National Code of Ethics and establishment of self-regulation body
- Provide short-term training for journalists on independent journalism coverage such as debates of candidates, analytical programmes on election platforms of political parties and so on