Global standards in covering presidential elections by non-government electronic mass media

The major political event of the year – presidential elections – will be held in Uzbekistan on the 4th of December. Mass media, including non-government TV and radio broadcasters, will take an active part in this process.

Solid organizational and legal foundations have been built in Uzbekistan for the organization of democratic elections, and significant practical experience has been gained in this field. Special attention is attached to ensuring openness and transparency of the upcoming elections, which depend largely on the activities of mass media.

On the 21st of September the Central Election Commission (CEC) jointly with the National Association of Electronic Mass Media (NAEMM) of Uzbekistan signed a bilateral agreement on the preparation for and coverage of presidential elections in Uzbekistan.

The next step was a general conference of the NAEMM members, held at the “Bunyodkor” youth multimedia complex, and aimed at the preparation for and coverage of presidential elections, at which was discussed and approved the elections’ coverage Program with plans to hold a number of events in six directions.

The first direction has an outlined plan to conduct training seminars facilitated by national experts for representatives of non-government electronic mass media for raising the level of journalists’ legal awareness in covering the election campaign.

A training seminar was held, in particular, by CEC experts on the subject “Legal foundations of electing president of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Calendar of major pre-election and election campaign events”.

Another training seminar, devoted to covering the pre-election and election campaigns in mass media with the help of talk-programs for Editors-in-Chief of non-government TV stations and creative groups, was conducted with the participation of Davron Olimov, senior researcher at the Institute of Monitoring the Acting Legislation under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Sherzod Qudratkhojayev, chair of journalism faculty at the National University of Uzbekistan.

The National Association of Electronic Mass Media hosted a meeting with the experts of the Needs Assessment Mission, who had arrived in our country under the leadership of Alexander Shlyk, chief of OSCE ODIHR Department on elections, and the Department councilor Ulvi Akhundlu (Azerbaijan).

The OSCE ODIHR takes decisions in accordance with the established practice on the expediency of monitoring the elections, its format, duration and the required number of observers on the results of assessment of pre-election situation, course of preparation for elections, and analysis of national legislation’s compliance with the generally accepted international standards.

At the meeting with the NAEMM members the international experts were able to get acquainted with the activities of non-government TV and radio broadcasting channels on covering the presidential election campaign in Uzbekistan.

“We have already spent two days in Uzbekistan. I have to state outright that our meetings have been quite fruitful. Soon we will be able to summarize our observations. It is a bit early to speak about the first results, because the observation process is still in progress,” Alexander Shlyk said.

It should be noted that later the OSCE ODIHR passed a decision to send a full-scale observers’ mission for the first time to Uzbekistan with consideration of our country’s readiness to conduct open and transparent elections in accordance with internationals standards.

The OSCE projects coordinator in the country, John McGregor, also paid a visit to NAEMM on the 21st of October. He familiarized himself with the Association’s activities and discussed its plans for the future. He attended a presentation of media products devoted to the coverage of the election process by non-government TV and radio broadcasting stations.

“The OSCE projects’ coordinators in Uzbekistan and the NAEMM have been cooperating on the basis of mutual trust over a number of years. We do, certainly, have much to do ahead, but the results achieved so far will have to be assessed positively. I have been convinced in the course of my visit that great preparation work is going on for presidential elections in Uzbekistan,” John McGregor noted.

The second direction envisages conducting events with the participation of international experts with the aim of demonstrating the opportunities and conditions created for non-government electronic mass media for expression of their active civic stances.

Thus, a series of training seminars under the leadership of foreign experts was launched on the 23rd of October. Independent journalist Birgit Wetzel (Germany) conducted a workshop on the subject “How to make use of international experience and innovative resources and cover major public events in a country in creating information radio content”.

The main attention at the seminar was paid to raising the theoretical knowledge of NAEMM Information Center’s creative workers through foreign experience and innovative coverage resources. Trainings on covering pre-election processes and the elections proper were conducted for the young journalists. Focus was made on an interesting radio information and, eventually, on the quality media products.

A seminar on the topical issue “International experience in covering major events and program in talk-shows” was facilitated by Rene Falkner, President of the Federal Association of German TV companies. Its objective was to boost the professional skills and competencies of the creative group in the ‘talk-show’ format, which is quite popular throughout the world.

Training seminars were held with journalists, who produce special public videos and documentary films at the initiative of NAEMM, in partnership with the Regional Representation Office of the Conrad Adenauer Foundation for Central Asia.

Training sessions on the subjects ‘International experience in preparation of media products of social significance’, ‘Innovative methods of filming social videos’ and “Preparation of documentaries about the life of the youth” were organized within the framework of the training seminar “Preparation of socially significant media products for the youth based on international experience.”

Specialist fr om France Mohens Schmidt, senior UNESCO consultant, facilitated a training seminar for the creative group of the ‘STV’ TV channel in the city of Samarkand on November 13-14, 2016.

“Innovative promotion methods via media content multimedia platforms and social networks” was the title of a training seminar organized for web-journalists with the participation of Amandine Ambregni, Editor-in-Chief of the AFP and deputy head of department of social networks (Paris, France).

Expert of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, representative on the problems of mass media freedoms, chairperson of the creative Union of journalists of Lithuania and Board member of the Radio and Television of Lithuania Dainus Radzyavichus familiarized himself with the activities of non-government TV and radio broadcasting stations, which operate in Ferghana and Marghilon. In the course of his visit, the foreign expert had highly evaluated the election media products prepared by TV stations.

The third and fourth directions have plans to prepare operative and reliable news by NAEMM Radio information center and non-government TV and radio broadcasters’ information services aimed at wider coverage of the election campaign.

263 reports, 126 story information and 63 social opinion survey reports have been prepared and broadcast so far.

Preparation and broadcasting of more than 100 information articles and about 150 pieces of TV products in other genres are expected to be transmitted at the next stage.

8 social videos, 10-15 announcements, “Election diary” program and such other information materials, 910 media contents in all, are being broadcast on a daily basis.

400 radio materials related to different genres are expected to be prepared and broadcast during the days to follow.

The fifth direction includes preparation of social media product, TV reels and Radio clips aimed at explaining the elections’ essence and significance, major voting provisions and procedures, operation of voting stations, and such other issues.

Social media product assumes daily screening of more than 20 commercials broadcast by 25 TV stations.

The sixth direction outlined plans to prepare talk programs on the electoral subjects with the participation of representatives of the CEC, political parties, presidential candidates’ proxies and other persons involved, and transmitting them via air-time of the non-government TV and radio broadcasters.

20 “My voice” talk programs have been planned for transmission timed to elections, these include the following topics: “President – who is he?” “The culture of elections”, “Role and significance of political parties in the election campaign and the legal foundations of pre-election campaigning” and others

10 “Mening ovozim” (My voice) talk shows with the participation of representatives of the CEC, political parties, the candidates’ authorized persons, deputies of Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis and the youth have been prepared and broadcast 20 times.

The participants of the “Mening ovozim” talk show during its shooting discussed the questions of the role and significance of the mass media in the course of presidential elections.

Presenter of this interesting MY5 TV channel program Nasiba Fakhritdinova asked the youth and girls critical questions inviting them for an open discussion.

Initially was screened a sociological survey, carried out by TV staff members right on the streets of Tashkent. And in the course of the social survey young people, while responding to the question wh ere did they get information from, referred, in the first place, to TV and Internet.

Foreign experts were directly contacted with during the program. Dainus Radzyavichus shared the European experience in covering the elections, while a journalist from Baku Tural Aliyev spoke about a public survey during a telebridge, which revealed the most important sources of information in the course of election campaign in Azerbaijan.

The NAEMM, jointly with its domestic and foreign partners, is going to host an international “round table” meeting on the subject “Application of international standards in covering the election of president of the Republic of Uzbekistan by non-government TV and radio broadcasting studios: national experience and the global practices” on the 18th of November within the framework of an extensive work on the preparation for the elections.

Domestic and foreign experts will discuss at the “round table” the educational and enlightenment projects organized by NAEMM for raising up the legal culture, professional skills and technical mastership of non-government mass media employees of Uzbekistan and elaborate recommendations on the democratic coverage of electoral processes on the basis of advanced countries’ experiences.

In conclusion we will note that the conducted training seminars and talk shows enabled to work out quite a number of questions on the further activities in covering the election campaign. The journalists received answers to their numerous questions, which will help improve the quality of published materials made ready for broadcasting TV and radio programs.

The process of democratization of public life places responsible tasks before the mass media of Uzbekistan on keeping the public more efficiently informed, while the continuously increased level of mass media will have to promote fuller realization of the citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of speech. The activities carried out by NAEMM in this direction enable to achieve the set targets in a coordinated and systemic basis, thus creating in the country a larger platform for the further development of media industry.

Rene Falkner, President of the Association of local TV companies of Germany, managing Director of the Sachen Fernsten GmbH&Co.

“The training seminar, hosted by NAEMM, has been very productive. I think that we have managed to fully cope with the set target, which included the study of the global experiences in covering the progress in the election of president of the country. I think that the skills and competences acquired in the course of training will provide the journalists the opportunity to successfully cover the upcoming elections. The problems of organizational activities will have to be surely addressed to. But I highly assess the technical outfit and creative potential of non-government TV studios.”

Mohens Schmidt, UNESCO senior advisor and consultant, former director of the UNESCO department for freedom of speech (Denmark).

“The seminar in Samarkand was held at a rather high level. Taking part in it were the youth, who, in my opinion, strive to adopt the European standards in covering the elections. They stick closer to the society and the people, which prove again Uzbekistan’s high democratic standards,

“A balance is being observed in information programs and news blocks in covering the pre-election campaign: an equal duration of allocated time is provided to every candidate. Great attention is paid to each candidate‘s program. That means that the balance will have to be stuck to for the entire duration of the election campaign.”

Krista Pikkat, Head of UNESCO Office in Uzbekistan:

“In the course of my visit to NAEMM I have been able to familiarize myself with the activities on covering presidential elections in Uzbekistan.

“A presentation of social videos, calling upon to actively participate in the elections of president was held here, at which I was able to get acquainted with the work of radio information center and the youth studio carried out in this sphere.

“In my opinion the Association’s creative team has done a tremendous job in this direction. I witnessed a debate held within the framework of the campaign. NAEMM covers elections in accordance with the accepted global standards.”

Dainus Radzyavichus, expert of the OSCE on mass media freedom in Vienna, chairperson of the Union of Journalists of Lithuania, member of the commission Board of Lithuanian Radio and Television:

“Printed publications currently lose to other means of mass media and people read less today. These tendencies are acute also in Uzbekistan. I perceive this fact with regret. To be able to penetrate deeper into the presidential candidates’ positions and understand their views and priorities, it is vital, in my opinion, to get acquainted with various mass media publications and programs, including those published in printed media. I have no doubt that preparation for and conducting elections will be successfully held in Uzbekistan. And great merit in this will go to the national mass media, which does a great job in covering the election campaign.”