ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: Radio and TV stations in Pakistan have been advised to put “equitable focus on the campaigns of all political parties” in their coverage of the forthcoming local government elections and broadcast the results of only those opinion polls which were “entirely credible”.

This advice was part of a set of guidelines given by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) in a workshop organized at the Bhurban hill resort for the broadcast media.

The participants were urged to start election coverage and increase air time as the elections draw near.

For the current affairs, it suggested production of regular series of dedicated programmes at fixed times focusing on voter education covering the details of the electoral process and the electoral rights of all voters including women and other disadvantaged groups.

Public or private entertainment channels must contribute to voter education. In this connection young voters should be encouraged to understand the purpose, importance and process of elections, the workshop recommended.

This can be done with the use of short messages between the music that will explain the reasons for voting and the importance of participation, it urged.

The workshop suggested that news and current affairs editor should set up an election coverage cell and cover news down to the district level, with equitable allocation of time.

This unit should comprise persons, who are generally impartial and objective, it emphasised.

The CBA workshop recommended that airing of official news should be restricted to the reporting of the event itself and not include electioneering material. News and comment must be clearly differentiated.

It suggested that the election cell should allocate resources equitably for the coverage of all parties campaigns. The workshop recommended that the state-run media should provide free air time to the contesting parties.

During the free air time all registered parties that have fielded candidates should be offered five minutes prime time (6pm to 11 pm) on a one-time basis during the official campaign period.

For the major parties, the CBA workshop demanded that 50 minutes of recorded programmes should be offered to each of the major political parties after the date of scrutiny of nomination papers. This should be on an equitable basis to be agreed between the parties and the broadcasters.

These parties should be fielding candidates in more than one province. Regional parties should be accommodated on a regional basis. The party head or nominee should participate in each programme.

The workshop urged that each time allowance should include a section concerning the party’s manifesto followed by questions and answers and all programmes should be presented by professional journalists.

The workshop recommended that the broadcaster had the right to refuse government advertisements that contained electioneering material, whereas the private media must abide by Pemra law boundaries of balance in this respect.

Advertisement slots must be made available on a first come first served basis and no party should buy more than 15 minutes from any 24 hour advertising cycle. Similarly, no party may have more that 2 x 30 seconds slots in prime time (i.e. 6pm to 11pm) on any one day.

One of the recommendations of the workshop said all election advertisements must be stopped 48 hours before polling day and advertisements should be refused if they contained content contrary to the election law.