In the first two weeks of the campaign, the current government received the most media coverage

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - In the first two weeks of the election campaign, the media, especially public broadcasters, did not offer citizens enough information to enable an informed choice. A significantly greater presence in the media was recorded for those political entities already participating in government, as well as the almost complete invisibility of new parties and movements on the Bosnian political scene.

These are some of the results of the preliminary analysis of Media Monitoring during the 2018 election campaign, presented today in Sarajevo. The monitoring was organized with the aim of determining whether and to what extent the media contribute to citizens making an informed choice, and whether the media report in the interest of political entities or in the interest of citizens.

Lejla Turčilo, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo, author of the methodology and preliminary report, presented the key observations of media monitoring for the period from September 7 to 21.

- Of the analyzed 10,602 media contents published in this period, there were 2,261 election-related contents, or 18%. The largest share of election content in total news content was held by private TV stations - 28.05%, and the smallest by public radio stations - 11.59% - said Turčilo, adding that private media (TV stations, print, and portals) reported more on the election campaign than public media.

A concerning indicator is that a large portion of media space is occupied by politicians who hold public office, and it can be said that they are privileged in the context of gaining media space during the election campaign.

- Of the 2,261 election-related contents, it was recorded that a large part of media space is occupied by parties in power in the entities – as much as 35.1%. In first place by number of appearances is the SDA, followed immediately by the SNSD, while in third place is the HDZ - emphasized the author of the research, adding that independent candidates and new political options are almost unnoticed in media reporting.

Among individual candidates, Milorad Dodik had a disproportionately higher number of media appearances than the other two following candidates on the sample list, and he has more appearances than all his party colleagues from the SNSD.

In electronic media, an alarming 205 cases of bias and cheerleader journalism were recorded. In the review of public broadcasters' reporting on political entities, it is noticeable that the public broadcaster of Republika Srpska (RTRS) shows unprofessionalism – in 45 cases, this media outlet took a biased angle towards a political entity.

Inappropriate speech was recorded in 11 percent of cases relative to the total number of election-related contents, which is a lower percentage compared to the 2014 monitoring, when it was nearly 15%, and the bearers of inappropriate speech are mostly non-media actors.

- Regarding the media's treatment of female candidates, the findings indicate their underrepresentation in media content. "Although the approach to female candidates is mostly neutral, the number of appearances of women must be increased," said Turčilo.

At the press conference, key observations and recommendations for the media were presented to improve the quality and diversity of media programs dedicated to the elections by the end of the election campaign. It was stated that it is unacceptable for the media, especially public broadcasters, to neglect their function of education and orientation, and that more attention needs to be paid to informing about the elections. Additionally, it was emphasized that most media need to adopt a fair and balanced approach in presenting political entities, as it is evident that they do not respect the right to reply nor give political entities the opportunity to respond to accusations, labeling, inappropriate qualifications...

It was stressed that public broadcasters, especially RTRS, must pay more attention to different political actors, not just the ruling parties and candidates. Also, the Communications Regulatory Agency was called upon to more strongly assume responsibility for media monitoring and regulation during the election period.

Media monitoring is conducted on a sample of 30 media outlets (5 daily newspapers, 10 news portals, and 15 electronic media), with the intention of creating recommendations for improving legislation related to the media and their obligations during the election campaign, within the BASE project funded by the European Union and USAID, and implemented by the consortium BH Novinari – Boram and the Coalition Pod lupom.