There are no free and fair elections with out a free media. If everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as Article 10 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights states, then only a free, independent and functioning media can guarantee that right.

The African Union and other regional organizations confirm this role for the media in their protocols, declarations and election standards. If during the election campaign media can’t perform their double role of informing the public and “watching” the governments by holding them accountable, there is something seriously wrong with the process of elections.

If anything, the influence of media in Africa’s elections is growing with broadcasters announcing elections results ahead of Electoral Commissions.

These days, no self-respecting tyrant will do without elections. Yet only too often the election observers of regional bodies or the international communities sign up to travesties of the electoral process, judging the mere election event instead of the whole process which often imposes restrictions on the media coverage during the election campaign and before.

fesmedia Africa therefore subscribes to the recent criticism of an election centered approach, as voiced by Paul Collier in his book “Wars, Guns & Votes”  . Collier argues that the international community focuses too much on holding elections rather than building broader systems of accountability. His data suggest that questionable elections held in conflict states “have increased political violence instead of reducing it”. (Read the book review by Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch)

Our own work on the issue of “Media and Elections” started in 2007 with a Workshop on “Elections, Freedom of Expression and Information in the SADC-region”, held in conjunction with the Annual General Conference of the Electoral Commission Forum (ECF) of SADC-countries in Luanda, Angola.

Following from this event ECF and various FES-country offices got together and organized further national workshops on election coverage for all stakeholders involved.

Our aim was and is to bring representatives of Electoral Commissions and members of the media together to understand, discuss and practice the various standards applying to the organisation and coverage of elections.

In 2009 FES and ECF commissioned and published a compilation of all existing election standards as regards to the media.

At the request of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression in Africa we will extend the discussion of election standards among stakeholders to a continental level, including important Electoral Commissions outside of the SADC-region at a conference in mid-2010.

Here the chairpersons of parliamentary portfolio committees, members of the executives, representatives of government departments responsible for the ratification of regional treaties, leaders of political parties as well as stakeholders from media organizations and NGOs will discuss ways of closing the gap between existing standards and the their lacking implementation practice during election time. All of this work is being done with the understanding that elections are just a particular moment in the political cycle when the general democratic dispensation of a country is put to its final test.

For fesmedia Africa before the election is during the election is after the election.