In terms of mechanisms for media oversight and control during campaigns, there are several areas of concern where there is room for improvement: the independence of the REM should be strengthened, and its responsibilities during the campaign period should be explicitly defined by law and extended to all aspects of media coverage of elections. The REM should be better positioned to act upon its own initiative, including through timely actions based on systematic monitoring of election coverage and compliance with established regulations. This leads to the following recommendations:
(1) The scope of action and competences of the different monitoring and supervisory bodies need to be clarified by the regulatory texts, especially in relation to the ECOB
(2) Legislative texts should offer clear and objective criteria for decisions on selection of the media outlets to be monitored. While the REM should include all relevant media outlets in the monitoring sample, including all media with national coverage, one of the main criteria should be the size of the audience of the channels.
(3) The monitoring methodology should be clearly determined in a transparent process by the REM following consultations with the stakeholders. Monitoring should be based on quantitative and qualitative parameters. It would be beneficial if the monitoring also includes coverage of women candidates and women political participation.
(4) Regarding its scope, monitoring should not only focus on election broadcasts (campaign information, interviews and debates) but also extend to information on state officials.
(5) Ex-post supervision and sanction measures should be combined with preventive and self-regulatory measures based on the drafting of codes of conduct.
(6) Sanctioning procedures during the election period need to be much more streamlined without prejudice to the guarantees for persons and organisations that may be affected.