Reporting Elections

The election period starts with either the dissolution of parliament or an earlier time when the Queen announces her intention to dissolve parliament. Once this period begins there are several laws and regulations that journalists must keep in mind while reporting. The main reason for these restrictions is because during an election period it is even more important than normal for broadcasters to be fair and impartial, because we cannot influence the voter’s opinions. These impartiality guidelines are set by the broadcasters codes of conducts, either the BBC of Ofcom.

During an election period it is extremely important for broadcaster to be impartial, and show their impartiality. Newspapers do not have to be impartial and can be as biased as they want towards a political party. But because of the intrusive nature of the media impartiality is extremely important.

Each of the main three political parties must be given equal time and prominence to express their opinions, this goes further than normal balance which is showing both sides of the story. A broadcaster must give the exact amount of time to each major political party, and if there is a fourth that is also prominent in the area, this means that each candidate or leader must be given an equal amount of air time, to the second, to give their opinion.

Due weight means that you do not have to give each opinion the same amount of time and prominence throughout a broadcast, package or article, but instead give due weight to an opinion with regards to the amount of people that hold it, so minor opinions do not need to be given the same weight as commonly held ones.

As far as the legal restrictions go, we still have to be mindful of libel as always, but within elections candidates are likely to make defamatory allegations about one and other. There is no statutory privilege for media covering elections, but if the statements are said within a press conference or public meeting, then as long as they report is fast accurate and fair the journalist should be able to rely upon qualified privilege.

The laws against publishing false statements is designed to stop any dirty tricks between candidates and their supporters. This law makes it a criminal offence to:

• make or publish a false statement of fact about the personal character or conduct of an election candidate, if the purpose of publishing the false statement is to affect how many votes he/she will get.

It is a defence to show that when the statement was published it was believed that the comment was true or had reasonable grounds to believe that the statement was true

Exit polls and reporting from a polling station is another legal danger zone. In the UK you cannot release exit poll data before the polls close, this includes vox popps with voters.

Section 66A of the Representation of the People Act 1983, says it is a criminal offence to:

• Publish, before the polls are closed, any statement about the way in which voters have voted in that election, where this statement is, or might reasonably be taken to be, based in information given by voters after they have voted

And to

• To publish, before a poll is closed, any forcast – including any estimate – of that election result, if the forecast is based on exit poll information from voters, or which might reasonably be taken to be based on it

So if a journalist broadcasts or prints any information from exit polls or information about how people have voted while the polls are open then the publisher is liable to a fine of up to £5000 fine or up to 6 months in jail term.

This limits what reporters can say and do during an election day, the election is the news of the day but as far as being able report the only thing journalists can really report about are how many people are voting. This is why during elections, like the Police and Crime Commissioner elections a couple of weeks ago, all the news, online and broadcast, will be focused on the numbers that are coming out to vote. There is no way this can affect the outcome of the results or affect public opinion so it is legally safe.