Skopje, 11.08.2017 – Representatives of the national television and radio stations had one more opportunity today to remind themselves of the rules for media coverage of elections. Namely, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services organized, as part of the activities related to the monitoring of the 2017 local elections, a working meeting on the broadcasters’ obligations during the period from the elections’ announcement until the start of the election campaign.
The subject of the monitoring, the obligations that broadcasters have during this period in line with the Electoral Code, as well as the manner in which they will be monitored, were all explained in detail. It was pointed out that, in this period, the Agency would be monitoring to see if journalist standards and pluralism of views and opinions are respected when reporting, and if the bans against broadcasting paid political advertisements, ads paid with budget funds, simultaneous participation of editors, journalists, programme hosts and presenters in radio and television programmes and pre-election activities of political parties and coalitions, as well as the ban against discrimination and hate speech in reporting, are observed.
Also monitored will be the coverage of the activities of the state bodies, organs of the municipalities and the City of Skopje, state institutions and organizations, as well as legal and other entities entrusted by law to perform public office, as it must not serve the purpose of one’s electoral presentation in the media.
The presentation of the rules for media coverage of the elections until the start of the election campaign, which was used at the working meeting, is available at this link.