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Other articles in the RAP 21 Newsletter n° 54/2002:
The Business of Newspapers
State subsidy is risky business
Newsletter n° 54
THE BUSINESS OF NEWSPAPERS

The importance of the media during elections

The Gambia Press Union (GPU) held a week-long workshop for journalists recently to train them in the run-up to several important elections to be held this year. The aim of the workshop was to train journalists to provide readers with high quality election coverage.

"The GPU looked at the elections ahead and reflected over our role as media practitioners in coverage terms. The tasks ahead are formidable, and they are also of great importance to the future of this country and its citizenry. All journalists have a crucial role to play in election coverage," says Alagi Yorro Jallow, secretary-general of the GPU and editor-in-chief of The Independent, a biweekly newspaper with a circulation of 3,500.

For The Independent newspaper, the workshop was of great help, says Mr Yorro Jallow. As a result, the newspaper ran two columns in connection to the National Assembly elections at the end of January, representing all the different political parties. One of the columns was called "Introducing the Candidates", where the different candidates had the opportunity to express themselves through interviews. The second column, "The Election Forum", dealt with the manifests and the constitutions of the different parties. The newspaper also followed up the elections in the country-side.

For Mr Yorro Jallow it is evident that the media had an crucial role to play during elections: "An election, especially in our evolving democracies, lies very much in the public domain. The public interest is always at stake. In matters of public interest, journalism and journalists cannot take a back seat. They are not there for the sake of being there, but as a kind of agent for the public who wants them to report back on developments. People have to know about those who seek their support and their votes. They need to know about their ideas, their programmes and plans for the citizenry."

The GPU workshop also discussed the role of the media in election coverage.

"A journalist must make sure that his or her effectiveness in the field is not adversely affected or compromised by others such as for example the security services. As a journalist, you belong where the action is. Can there be elections as we know them without newspapers? No. Newspapers are so important that even the manner in which elections are conducted and campaign are managed, have undergone considerable transformation to make more effective use of available media. This can be seen in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and France. This includes the design of speaker platforms at political conventions, the timing of important releases to match the deadlines of newspapers and efforts to make the headlines. All the various political events including the nominating of candidates by parties, the design and implementation of campaign itineraries, the holding of various types of meetings and rallies, matter to the media and the people being served. Newspapers therefore need to follow developments avidly, to observe and report on what they have seen, what they have heard."

Mr Yorro Jallow concludes: "Journalists also have the important function of operating as political pundits. They can analyse a given statement made by a politician, and they can probe into particular story angles affecting a politician or a political party. It is all part of digging for the facts, to bring to light anything that happens to be in the public domain and which the electorate should know in order to make informed judgements."
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