Pacific media group says election observers lack media nous
A group fighting for media freedom in the Pacific says free and fair access to media should come higher up the list of considerations for election observers.
Transcript
A group fighting for media freedom in the Pacific says free and fair access to media should come higher up the list of considerations for election observers.
The Pacific Freedom Forum says two groups of observers judged Nauru's recent election free and fair despite a de facto ban on foreign media and curbs on opposition MPs.
The Forum's Jason Brown told Sally Round international media access to cover elections is crucial to a free and fair election and it's strange the observers didn't mention the restrictions in their interim reports.
JASON BROWN: Foreign media can often support and help local media ask the questions that they themselves may not be able to ask for fear of offending the wrong people. Whether it be private interests or public interests or their immediate boss or relatives or whatever the case may be. It is a check and balance that goes beyond borders, its ethics without borders if you like. So diversity and pluralism and media whether it is a national election or local affairs is a strength not a weakness.
SALLY ROUND: The commonwealth observers leader Anote Tong told us that its easier for people campaigning in elections to have those face to face meetings with their various constituents, that is the setting that they are in, it is different in the Pacific Islands. How does the forum react to that?
JB: Well it is different in the islands and we accept the chair accepts his point that the face to face meetings definitely have a role and that kind of informal setting everyone benefits from not just people in the Pacific but what we are saying is that in a small country like Nauru like our Pacific states even the bigger ones, We are all closely connected and people may not feel comfortable let alone confident of asking their elected representatives hard questions. Especially the ones that happen to be in power.
SR:These observers haven't put out their full reports yet these are just interim reports. So obviously they are not giving the full picture of what they have seen. Would you not give them the benefit of the doubt that they maybe raising these media issues a bit further down the track?
JB: Hopefully they will. From what the forum has seen in the past though these reports tend to name check the importance of the media alongside civil society gender rights and so forth. Not that they are all not important issues. What we are saying is that the media is the main avenue for these issues to be raised and should thus take a higher priority. With the concerns about the opposition to and their freedom of expression is noted by the parliamentary union there is widespread silencing of political opposition, this is what has happened in Nauru. And hopefully the electoral observers will also take note of that. To then declare an election free and fair seems to be a very generous assessment of what actually happened there. So if that is their preliminary view hopefully they will take a more perhaps sceptical and deeper look at what really goes into free and fair elections including full access for the media.
SR: One of the things the group has raised is that there seems to be little understanding of the role of the fourth estate in elections. So do you think this is something you might be able to suggest, that journalists are included among observer groups in future in elections in the region?
JB: Certainly although I thought that that was already their case forgive me my ignorance it seems that politicians watching politicians is enough and we must note that at least one of the observers has previously been the subject of a PFF alert in terms of media freedom in his own country when he was previously leader. Perhaps the electoral observer missions need checks and balances and greater diversity themselves.
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