Elections, media and ethics
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Gopal Sengupta
According to media reports the eminent jurists recommended that the parliament amends the constitution, scrapping the current provision which allows former chief justices to lead caretaker governments. They instead suggested strengthening the existing system of the Supreme Judicial Council led by the chief justice for removal of constitutional officers such as the SC judges, Chief Election Commissioner, election commissioners, chairman and members of the Public Service Commission, and the Comptroller and Auditor General. Bangladesh's last national parliament election may be one of the wonders of the world. But it is widely understood that in 2008 the free, fair, and democratic attributes of that election has been compromised as never before by the large scale, illegal, and scandalous use of money power - which, to a considerable extent, involved recycled dirty money garnered through corruption in executive and legislative office. The role of the Election Commission of Bangladesh in curbing booth capturing, intimidation of voters, and some other kinds of electoral fraud has won public appreciation. Electoral malpractices such as bribing voters, impersonation, and intimidation of voters by the goons of rival candidates, tampering with voter lists, and manipulating the location of polling booths to suit the needs of particular contestants have been as old as the Bangladesh Republic. Many of these complaints were heard in the first general election, held in 1973. Every subsequent election saw new additions to this list of improprieties, which included abuse of power by bureaucrats and the police in support of the ruling group. The 1980s saw a spurt in electoral violence, large scale rigging of polls, booth capturing, ballot stuffing, and the mass removal of the names of voters from the electoral rolls. That has been checked, to a large extent, by the various measures adopted by the Bangladesh Election Commission to clean up the electoral process. But the Bangladesh Election Commission has partially failed in one area, that is, in curbing the corruption of elections through money power. The 2008 elections witnessed the worst in this regard. Influential sections of both the print and broadcast media sold their news space or news slots to electoral candidates or their parties, throwing to the wind all professional and ethical norms and probably violating the law as well. The media, mostly newspapers and TV channels reportedly made money in these deals. The transactions enabled the contestants to buy space and publish all they wanted to project themselves in favourable light to the electorate. Those who refused to purchase the coverage packages were reported to have been denied publicity. Many journalists have expressed their anguish over the selling of news space which would jeopardize public trust in the media and lower credibility. The issue may entail taking a fresh look at the functioning of the self-regulating mechanism in the media. More truths have to be brought to light, for instance, the role of journalists in such shameless media misadventures and how far they can be used for or forced into such questionable, assignments. Do journalistic ethics concern only journalists? Do they relate solely to the news and editorial functions of the media or also to their business side? The strengthening of the self regulatory system of the media is certainly an urgent imperative. A new generation of journalists seems to be making a fast buck by giving coverage to individuals whose only interest is to wield political power. A lamentable reason for this is the irresponsibility of the educated class, which does not turn up to vote. It is not just the fourth estate but all the so called pillars of democracy that have been put up for sale in the last couple of decades. The solution lies in regulating the manner in which funds are raised by political parties. The Election Commission can form a corpus which can be filled up with donations from entities. And this corpus should be used to fund parties' activities. All major parties must be given an equal share, with the smaller parties and independents funded in a way deemed appropriate by the Election Commission. Unless the inflow is controlled, the outflow from a party cannot be controlled. One way of curbing the misuse of money power during elections could be to allow contests on party symbols without disclosing the name of the candidates'. The allegation that some newspapers take a stand depending on who pays them the most may be true. But, by and large, most newspapers still value impartiality and practice fearless journalism. The root cause for the deterioration in almost all functional areas of our democracy is the collapse of our education system. Teachers in the past were highly disciplined. They inculcated values in children very early in life, which is no longer the case. The country has been witness to many forms of election malpractices but the news of some candidates paying huge sums to some of the media for coverage during electioneering is indeed shocking and shameful. But, by and large the Bangladesh media has withstood a lot of challenges and earned a high reputation despite some sections indulging in the cash transfer scheme and floating coverage packages! The writer may be reached at e mail: gopalsengupta@aol.com
According to media reports the eminent jurists recommended that the parliament amends the constitution, scrapping the current provision which allows former chief justices to lead caretaker governments. They instead suggested strengthening the existing system of the Supreme Judicial Council led by the chief justice for removal of constitutional officers such as the SC judges, Chief Election Commissioner, election commissioners, chairman and members of the Public Service Commission, and the Comptroller and Auditor General. Bangladesh's last national parliament election may be one of the wonders of the world. But it is widely understood that in 2008 the free, fair, and democratic attributes of that election has been compromised as never before by the large scale, illegal, and scandalous use of money power - which, to a considerable extent, involved recycled dirty money garnered through corruption in executive and legislative office. The role of the Election Commission of Bangladesh in curbing booth capturing, intimidation of voters, and some other kinds of electoral fraud has won public appreciation. Electoral malpractices such as bribing voters, impersonation, and intimidation of voters by the goons of rival candidates, tampering with voter lists, and manipulating the location of polling booths to suit the needs of particular contestants have been as old as the Bangladesh Republic. Many of these complaints were heard in the first general election, held in 1973. Every subsequent election saw new additions to this list of improprieties, which included abuse of power by bureaucrats and the police in support of the ruling group. The 1980s saw a spurt in electoral violence, large scale rigging of polls, booth capturing, ballot stuffing, and the mass removal of the names of voters from the electoral rolls. That has been checked, to a large extent, by the various measures adopted by the Bangladesh Election Commission to clean up the electoral process. But the Bangladesh Election Commission has partially failed in one area, that is, in curbing the corruption of elections through money power. The 2008 elections witnessed the worst in this regard. Influential sections of both the print and broadcast media sold their news space or news slots to electoral candidates or their parties, throwing to the wind all professional and ethical norms and probably violating the law as well. The media, mostly newspapers and TV channels reportedly made money in these deals. The transactions enabled the contestants to buy space and publish all they wanted to project themselves in favourable light to the electorate. Those who refused to purchase the coverage packages were reported to have been denied publicity. Many journalists have expressed their anguish over the selling of news space which would jeopardize public trust in the media and lower credibility. The issue may entail taking a fresh look at the functioning of the self-regulating mechanism in the media. More truths have to be brought to light, for instance, the role of journalists in such shameless media misadventures and how far they can be used for or forced into such questionable, assignments. Do journalistic ethics concern only journalists? Do they relate solely to the news and editorial functions of the media or also to their business side? The strengthening of the self regulatory system of the media is certainly an urgent imperative. A new generation of journalists seems to be making a fast buck by giving coverage to individuals whose only interest is to wield political power. A lamentable reason for this is the irresponsibility of the educated class, which does not turn up to vote. It is not just the fourth estate but all the so called pillars of democracy that have been put up for sale in the last couple of decades. The solution lies in regulating the manner in which funds are raised by political parties. The Election Commission can form a corpus which can be filled up with donations from entities. And this corpus should be used to fund parties' activities. All major parties must be given an equal share, with the smaller parties and independents funded in a way deemed appropriate by the Election Commission. Unless the inflow is controlled, the outflow from a party cannot be controlled. One way of curbing the misuse of money power during elections could be to allow contests on party symbols without disclosing the name of the candidates'. The allegation that some newspapers take a stand depending on who pays them the most may be true. But, by and large, most newspapers still value impartiality and practice fearless journalism. The root cause for the deterioration in almost all functional areas of our democracy is the collapse of our education system. Teachers in the past were highly disciplined. They inculcated values in children very early in life, which is no longer the case. The country has been witness to many forms of election malpractices but the news of some candidates paying huge sums to some of the media for coverage during electioneering is indeed shocking and shameful. But, by and large the Bangladesh media has withstood a lot of challenges and earned a high reputation despite some sections indulging in the cash transfer scheme and floating coverage packages! The writer may be reached at e mail: gopalsengupta@aol.com