Press Review: Electoral Issues

Weekly Local Press Review on Electoral Reform and Local Elections

Intermedia recently launched the Weekly Press Digest of Local Language Media Coverage of Electoral Reform and Local Elections in Pakistan as a useful resource for diverse stakeholders of democracy in Pakistan interested in improving the electoral environment in the country, especially those interested in seeing how democracy issues are articulated in Pakistan's local (not national) media. We would welcome any feedback you may have for us.

Why this Press Digest?
Pakistan's transition to democracy has included an opening up of media space and greater levels of information availability and consumption. Approximately three-quarters of the independent media in Pakistan have come into existence since the last local government elections were held in 2005. Few media outlets and journalists have experience reporting on local elections or electoral reform issues. However, such coverage is critically important at this time, as significant problems were identified with previous elections, and new local government election legislation is currently being drafted in the provinces.

This Digest is part of an initiative to assess and improve coverage of the electoral reform process and the anticipated local government elections by the local media in all provinces of Pakistan. It builds on findings of a baseline assessment conducted by Intermedia in April 2010.

Its aim is three-fold:

•  To monitor local language press trends in reporting election-related issues,

•  To provide feedback to the press media outlets on their work and

•  To provide a window into local languages press to English speakers in Pakistan and abroad.

The monitoring that produces this weekly digest is being conducted across Pakistan, divided into five regions with one monitoring stations each in Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Multan. This Digest principally offers representative samples of published media items on a range of categories related to the electoral reform process and local elections. The samples themselves being straight translations from local languages indicate the quality of content.

The Digest is produced by Intermedia for Democracy Reporting International under DRI's grant from the European Union. Under the same project three rounds of advocacy with representative media leaders, practitioners and associations have been held and Pakistan's first Code of Ethics for Reporting Local Elections and guidebooks in English and Urdu for Pakistani media and democracy groups on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of reporting electoral reform and anticipated local elections produced, while a series of trainings for ALL districts of Pakistan's four provinces are underway to train about 345 journalists to report electoral reforms and the 2011 anticipated local elections.

The contents of the Digest are the sole responsibility of Intermedia. This service will be available every week through April 2011 but its archives will remain on the Intermedia website. We hope that this will serve as a useful resource for diverse stakeholders interested in improving the electoral environment in Pakistan.

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About Intermedia : Intermedia is a Pakistani independent media development organization. Intermedia's vision statement aims at “supporting freedom of expression, access to information and citizens making informed opinions and decisions as a means of promoting an informed, democratic and tolerant society.” Intermedia's principal activities are centered on building technical and professional capacities and competencies of media organizations, including TV channels, radio stations and newspapers, and media rights bodies through thematic trainings; promoting free media in Pakistan through fair media laws and reforms; and carrying out research, advocacy and analysis on democracy and media-related issues. Intermedia focuses on improving the quality of civic and thematic dialogue and development communications critical to an open, pluralistic and democratic society by working with civil society groups and development sector organizations in improving their communications capacities in a dynamically evolving media sector. For more details please visit intermedia.org.pk