Bratislava (12 March 2009) – This is a follow up report on the previous long-term monitoring activities focusing on political diversity in media reporting conducted by MEMO 98 in Slovakia and abroad. At the same time, this is already the second report which analyses presentation of candidates in the selected media prior to the April presidential election (the first one was published on 12 February 2009 focused on presentation of potential presidential candidates at the end of 2008 and the next one will cover presentation of candidates during 10 days of the campaign). Monitoring of the media was conducted in the framework of the project www.infovolby.sk – the information portal supported by Open Society Foundation Slovakia.

Apart from covering the media presentation of registered candidates, the report also focuses on presentation of selected political entities (government, parliamentary political parties and their representatives) in the nationwide TV stations – publicly-funded STV and privately-owned TV Markiza, TV Joj and TA3 in the period of two weeks prior to the commencement of the official election campaign (from 20 February till 5 March). The monitoring focused on prime time news and included quantitative and qualitative analysis of the coverage, assessing and producing findings regarding the time or space allocated to each candidate and also evaluating the tone of the coverage. Quantitative analysis measures the total amount of time and space devoted to election contestants on news and information programs. Qualitative analysis evaluates the tone in which the relevant political subjects have been portrayed – positive, neutral or negative.

• Legal framework regulating the campaign limited the real competition between candidates. In result, there was minimum information about candidates (only 10 minutes in all monitored media together).
• Incumbent president Gasparovic was the most presented candidate – he received almost half of the total airtime (4 minutes and 16 seconds) devoted to all candidates.
• Of the monitored media outlets, STV devoted most airtime to candidates – 3 minutes and 25 seconds. However, of this airtime, as much as 80 % was information about the incumbent president Gasparovic (2 minutes and 44 seconds).
• Ms. Radicova was the most presented candidate in two private TV channels – TV Markiza and TV Joj.
• All monitored media together devoted 60 % to the government; of the political parties, KDH was given the biggest share (9,6 %) and of the monitored political representatives, the bulk of the coverage went to Prime Minister Fico
• STV was the only media outlet to bring more positive than negative information about the government.
• Presidential election as topic received most of the coverage on TA3 – more than 11 minutes.

Legal framework

The Electoral Law (46/1999) stipulates that the official election campaign in the media commences only 15 days prior to election (6 March) and ends 48 hours before the e-day (on 19 March at 07.00). As such, candidates have in fact only less than two weeks for their campaign, more precisely 13 days. Candidates were obliged to submit their registrations by 29 January and speaker of the parliament was obliged to make a decision by 5 February – in reality, he informed about the registered candidates already on 3 February. This resulted in an absurd situation (both from the point of view of candidates and also voters) whereby for more than a month candidates could not conduct their campaigns and the media could not inform about them and citizens could not form their opinions on candidates.

This law has not undergone almost any changes since it was passed in 1999, but some of its provisions are clearly outdated and need changes. The provision stipulating the length of the official election campaign in connection with the actual timing of candidates’ registration point out that an amendment is seriously needed. In its current form, the law evidently lacks what a good election law should have – meaningful, open and fair conditions for candidates and a good possibility for citizens to get sufficient information to be able to make an informed choice at the ballot box.

We have repeatedly pointed out in the past (along with some other NGOs) that there is a need for a complex revision of all the Slovak election laws to eliminate all the inconsistencies and harmonize different provisions stipulated in various election laws into one unified electoral code. The current situation whereby each Slovak election law regulates the role of media in a different way is not only absurd, but also counterproductive.

The main goal of the monitoring was to find out how these legal obstacles influenced on the media coverage of the campaign and also how the media tackled potential political pressure which always intensifies prior to an election. It is important to mention in this connection that according to a recently published report Television in Europe: Follow up reports attempts at political interference since the latest parliamentary elections in 2006 have increased significantly. The report inter alia mentions a statement by the incumbent President Ivan Gasparovic who, in an interview for the Slovak Radio at the beginning of 2008 said that State authorities such as the Government and Parliament should have their own media to present their opinions and decisions. As such, we were interested to find out if the political interference had an impact on the way how media covered activities of presidential candidates prior to the beginning of the official campaign in the media with a special focus on STV- financed by all citizens.

Presentation of candidates

As it was already mentioned, the media did not have a real chance to give enough airtime for presentation of candidates since it was forbidden to conduct candidates’ campaign in the monitoring period. With the election day getting closer however the interest of the media in candidates has naturally intensified. From 2 February till 5 March, the news channel TA3 allocated 11 minutes and 5 seconds to presidential election as topic which was the most of the monitored outlets but still less than a minute per day (in TA3 presidential election was the third most often presented topic). Other monitored TV channels devoted even less of their prime time news airtime to this topic – in STV and Markiza, it was about 6 – 7 minutes per day. The least amount of airtime to the presidential election in this “weak” period was given by TV Joj – only 4 minutes and 31 seconds. Given the fact that the Electoral Code enables media to inform about candidates in the framework of their news programs, there is a question if media could not provide more information about the election. Issues surrounding the financial crisis as well as the tragedy at Polomka dominated the news coverage during the monitoring period.

As for the actual presentation of candidates, the monitored media provided most of their attention to the incumbent president Ivan Gasparovic who was a candidate supported by two parties of the ruling coalition - he received a combined total of 4 minutes and 16 seconds (or 42,2 percent of the political and election-related prime time news coverage on all monitored TV channels together). Of this airtime, Ivan Gasparovic received almost two thirds on STV (2 minutes and 44 seconds).

STV devoted to President Gasparovic as much as 80 per cent of its total airtime given to presidential candidates. Moreover, he was the only candidate who, apart from being covered in a neutral manner, received also positive coverage – this was thanks to the fact that while other candidates were only mentioned indirectly by others, Ivan Gasparovic was the only candidate, who was given a chance to speak directly. STV’s prime time news coverage of other presidential candidates was marginal as none of them received more than 10 seconds. STV covered Ivan Gasparovic primarily in his capacity as the incumbent president and was very minimalistic in its effort to introduce candidates in a wider context. This approach once again proves that STV is ready to sacrifice real newsworthy and actual reporting at the expense of formal rules of balanced coverage (so no one is angry at its coverage). This reporting inter alia reflects the above mentioned statements by President Gasparovic about a need for the State authorities to have their own media which would inform about their activities.

Ivan Gasparovic received the bulk of the coverage also on TA3 – however, the total airtime which the news channel devoted to candidates was distributed more equally than on STV (it was roughly 37 % to each candidate). The information about Ivan Gasparovic was either neutral or positive in tone.

The second most presented candidate was Iveta Radicova (representing all three opposition parliamentary parties) – all monitored media gave her a combined total of 3 minutes and 13 seconds (which is roughly 31, 8 percent of the coverage). Iveta Radicova was the most presented candidate in two biggest private TV channels, TV Markiza and TV Joj. TV Markiza gave her one minute and 27 seconds (which was 45, 8 % of the total candidate-related prime time news airtime and TV Joj devoted to her one minute and 12 seconds (which was 69,2 % of the candidate-related prime time news airtime). It is important to mention that Iveta Radicova was the only candidate to receive some negative coverage – in fact she received more negative than positive coverage. This was mainly connected with the news items showing Catholic Church and its representative archbishop Balazs’ negative reaction towards the fact that KDH (Christian Democratic Movement) supported Radicova’s candidacy.

The third most presented candidate in all monitored media was Zuzana Martinakova with one minute and one second (which was 10 percent of the candidate-related prime time news airtime), with TV Markiza giving her the biggest portion of its coverage (35 seconds). As for the other candidates, F. Miklosko received 23 seconds, M. Melnik 21 seconds and M. Sidor 18 seconds of the coverage in all monitored media outlets together. With the exception of Iveta Radicova, all other candidates were mainly presented in a neutral light which also reflects an overall careful approach by the media prior to the commencement of the official campaign in the media.

As for the presentation of the government, similarly as in the past, information about its activities dominated. In comparison with the report published at the end of 2008 (which covered presentation of political subjects in the media from 24 November till 7 December), the actual amount of information about activities of Fico’s cabinet has increased – in STV, from 44,8 % to 63,2 %; in Markiza from 43,8 to 53,6 %; in TV Joj from 39 % to 72,6 % and in TA3 from 46,9 % to 55,4 %. This reflects a long-term trend of media devoting the bulk of their coverage to the activities of the government – two years ago (the monitoring period was from 15 February till 7 March), for example, the actual share of information about the government was as much as 75 % (in STV). It is important to mention, however, that the monitoring was significantly influenced by an explosion of an ammunition warehouse in Novaky which naturally had a direct impact on the amount of information about the government. On the other hand, the decrease in the amount of information about the cabinet by the end of 2008 could be connected with the decreased level of activities by State authorities by the end of year. While half of the political information about government activities more or less reflects a long-term trend in the Slovak media (the previous government of Mikulas Dzurinda received similar attention), more than 60 % of the coverage already gives reason for concern and questions about balance and adequacy of so much attention to the State authorities. These concerns and questions are even more relevant given the fact that STV allocates the biggest share of its coverage to political news (similarly as TA3 and unlike TV Joj, which devotes the least). Moreover, during the monitoring period, STV was the only television which devoted more positive than negative coverage to the government activities.

The monitoring results confirm the previous findings about STV’s news reporting being too careful and subservient in the way it covers government activities. As such, we have to once again reiterate the findings of the last report which concluded that such an approach resembles STV reporting from the past when the priority was not to defend interests of citizens and to critically assess the government activities, but to take into consideration interest and priorities of politicians.

Presentation of political parties and movements

Unlike with the presentation of the government which has increased, the presentation of political parties and movements by monitored media outlets has decreased. This trend has been noticed mainly with the representatives of the ruling coalition who received less airtime than the opposition – however, this was mainly due to the fact that representatives of the ruling coalition were mainly presented as members of the cabinet. The most presented political parties or movements in all the monitored media together were thus the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) with 9,6 %, followed by Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKU-DS), followed by “opposition in general” and only then the ruling party Slovak National Party (SNS).

As for the tone of the coverage, similarly as with the government, political parties and movements were portrayed overwhelmingly in a neutral light. There were some political subjects in each of the monitored media outlets who received only neutral coverage – in STV (SNS, LS-HZDS, KDS), in Markiza (SMK and KDS), in TV Joj (SNS, SMK and KDS) and TA3 (KDS). This shows that KDS was given only neutral coverage by all the monitored media outlets. It is also interesting that representatives of the ruling SMER-SD party were shown only as government representatives in TV Joj. As for the actual share of neutral information about political subjects, the biggest one was observed in STV (88 %) and TA3 – which confirms the monitoring results from the previous monitoring periods. By contrast, the smallest share of neutral information about political subjects was observed in TV Markiza (71 %). All the monitored media as a whole presented more negative than positive coverage about monitored subjects, with TV Markiza having the biggest amount of negative information. By contrast, STV had the smallest amount of negative information (6 %) and at the same time the biggest share of positive information (6 %) – which also confirms the observed trends from the previous monitoring periods.

Presentation of political representatives

The monitored media allocated the bulk of their political coverage to Prime Minister Robert Fico who received a combined total of more than 23 minutes. Of the monitored media outlets, TA3 gave him the most – almost 7 minutes. Of the time devoted to the government representatives, he received 38,7 % and as much as 78,2 % out of time given to the three highest state officials (speaker of the parliament and president). The second most presented politician was Minister of Economy L. Jahnatek (he received almost 7 minutes) followed by Minister of Education Jan Mikolaj (almost 6 minutes).

Media effects

Apart from informing about the way how media portray political events, we also try to focus on stories which lack some of the basic journalistic standards. The following stories were observed in the monitoring period lacking some of the basic journalistic standards:

Balance – Several monitored media outlets had stories which lacked balance (TV Markiza, TV Joj and TA3) – for example, when criticizing the government, they used old and not completely relevant statements. We also noted that selection of experts (used by the media) is sometimes superficial, or selective in favour of the opposition, when used not to offer an independent expert view but to confirm or deny a political statement. On the other hand, STV has used views of independent experts only rarely.

Relevance/factuality – most of all TV Joj covers political events only marginally and often from a special angle which puts attention on expressive statement by politicians which are quite often exaggerated by the media. In result of this different editorial policy, several relevant events (for example meeting of Prime Minister Fico with the trade unions in connection with their approach towards developments surrounding salaries due to the financial crisis).

Investigative reporting – While presenting several topics and issues, STV lacked a more serious attempt to go deeper and analyze the problem and quite often only presented superficial presentation of various statements, including official statements by State authorities, without providing a more complex explanation. This sort of reporting resembles some king of obligatory reporting – another words, reporting without a real ambition to report a story without its own editorial point of view.

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This report was prepared in the framework of the project “Information portal www.infovolby.sk“supported by the Open Society Foundation Slovakia.

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Attachments:
Results - All media
Results - STV
Results - TV Markíza
Results - TV Joj
Results - TA3