Electoral campaign of electoral subjects on the Public Radio and Television

(amended by Law No. 74/2012, dated 19 July 2012)

1. During electoral campaign, the public radio and television shall provide registered political parties and the CEC with free airtime for campaigning, which shall be allocated in accordance with the following rules:

a) a total of two hours shall be provided to the CEC, according to the time slots it requests. At least two-thirds of this time must be between 1800 and 2200;

b) for parliamentary parties that have received more than 20 percent of the seats in the last elections to the Assembly, the CEC shall allocate airtime equal to no less than 30 minutes on the public television and the same airtime on the public radio; for other parliamentary parties, this airtime shall be no less than 15 minutes. If airtime is increased for one party or one respective coalition, the time allotted to another party or coalition shall be proportionally increased;

c) each non-parliamentary party that participates in elections shall benefit 10 minutes in the public television and 10 minutes in the public radio;

ç) the respective electoral subject must be clearly identified on any political programme or advertisement for purposes of electoral propaganda. If the political programme or advertisement is not clearly identifiable, the CEC shall order the immediate suspension of its broadcast until due identification is made as required in this point.

2. The public radio and television shall cover the electoral campaign through news and information programmes, in compliance with the principles of impartiality, comprehensiveness, truthfulness, and pluralism of information set forth in the legislation that regulates electronic media. The free airtime benefited by political parties, in accordance with point 1 of this Article, may not be allocated as part of news and information programmes.

3. The public radio and television shall broadcast free of charge political advertisements, calculating the broadcasting time within the allocated airtime in accordance with point 1 of this Article.

4. During the electoral campaign, advertisements of central and local public institutions shall be prohibited, except for those serving to raise the awareness of voters on election-related aspects and/or other announcements envisaged by law.