Italy has a tradition of democratic elections and the 9-10 April 2006 general elections was conducted in overall keeping with this tradition.

The OSCE/ODIHR Election Assessment Mission (EAM) monitored six national TV channels using a proven methodology of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The mission has sought to evaluate whether the media provide impartial and balanced coverage of the political contestants and the campaign issues.

Quantitative analysis measured the total amount of time and space devoted to election contestants on news and information programs. Qualitative analysis evaluated the tone in which the relevant political subjects were portrayed – positive, neutral or negative. The monitoring of the media was supervised and conducted by Rasto Kuzel of MEMO 98.

Explanation on the charts

• The pie charts show the total percentage of airtime or space allocated to relevant political subjects for each media outlet in the defined period.
• The bar charts show the total number of hours and minutes of positive (green), neutral (white) and negative (red) airtime devoted to relevant political subjects by each media outlet in the defined period.

Monitored media outlets

Three publicly-funded TV channels (RAI Uno, RAI Due and RAI Tre) and three private broadcasters owned by Mediaset (Rete 4, Canale 5 and Italia 1).

Attachments:
Media monitoring results
OSCE/ODIHR Final Report