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Monitoring Jordanian media during the election campaign

11.09.2016
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The media have a great deal of responsibility placed on them during election periods.
That’s why the EU EOM to Jordan is monitoring media through a Media Monitoring Unit, which has begun its observation 20 days before Elections. The Unit assess the coverage of the campaign by some of the most important Jordanian media, including TV channels, radios and newspapers

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The media have a great deal of responsibility placed on them during election periods. It is essential that they provide a sufficient level of coverage of the elections that is fair, balanced and professional, so that the public is informed of the whole spectrum of political opinions as well as of the key issues related to the electoral process.

That’s why the EU EOM to Jordan is monitoring media through a Media Monitoring Unit, which has begun its observation 20 days before Elections. The Unit assess the coverage of the campaign by some of the most important Jordanian media, including TV channels, radios and newspapers.

The Media Analyst of the EU Election Observation Mission to Jordan, Javier Gutierrez, is also holding meetings with journalists and Chief Editors of different media outlets, to gather more information on their campaign coverage.

In the past days he visited Jordan TV, Jordan Radio, Roya TV, Radio Al Balad, the daily newspapers Al Rai and Assabeel, as well as 7iber website. He also visited the Jordan Media Commission and the Jordan Media Institute. Further visits are scheduled for the coming days.

The media monitoring methodology used in Jordan is the same used by all the EU Election Observation Missions. It produces a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the distribution of media airtime and space given to each political contestant, and the tone of coverage.

The results are analysed in the context of the Jordanian media environment, including the regulatory framework and the overall coverage of the election.

For broadcast media, the media monitors follow all programmes during primetime broadcasts and other election-related programming during the campaign. Television and radio programmes are recorded by the EU EOM and analysed on a daily basis, until the end of the election campaign.

This assessment considers:

-  whether political parties and candidates are given fair and equitable access to the media; 


-  whether political parties and candidates are covered in a balanced and unbiased manner; 


-  whether the media and the authorities adhere to the rules on coverage of an election campaign; -  whether the media give sufficient coverage of electoral issues to provide for the electorate making an informed choice on election day (if not, the reasons for this are considered); 


-  whether public (state-owned) media fulfil their specific obligations. 


The media analyst has also lead responsibility for the observation of online media, as well as the assessment of internet-related freedoms.

The findings of the media monitoring activity of the EU EOM will be published in the Mission’s Preliminary Statement, two days after Election. The Final Report of the EU EOM will comprise a more detailed analysis of the Jordanian media environment and will list a number of recommendations to improve the future electoral processes.

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EOM Jordan 2016
Election observation missions (EUEOMs)