The National - Friday, September 30th 2011
Officiating at the Bridge election workshop for journalists from Momase, Islands and Highlands on Wednesday, he said an election was a very important commodity as it would increase readership, listeners and viewers.
Marai, who is executive director of NBC’s Kundu 2, stressed the importance for media outlets in the country to plan and strategise their coverage of the elections well before 2012.
He said it was important for the media and the Electoral Commission (EC) to maintain a healthy relationship and work hand in hand on voter education to help voters in next year’s election.
“As practitioners, we need to build a relationship with EC to enable easy access to information on the electoral process.”
He said the commission relied on a free media to provide election news to the public, help with voter education and provide direct access for contestants.
He said the media relied on the commission to help ensure a good regulating environment for covering elections and information on the electoral process.
“Now that journalists are beginning to seal a relationship with EC, their organisations must make use of this opportunity to sell themselves with care.”
Bridge facilitator Gabriel Kaugla, who was speaking as a returning officer, said the 2012 General Election would be very tough and rigid.
He said the election would put a lot of media personnel lives’ at risk.
He said this was why they would be holding trainings with security and disciplined forces to make them understand that they were not supposed to take full control of the election but to work closely with the media in accessing information as the public had the right to know.
The week-long Bridge Project, which began on Monday, highlighted cross-cutting issues like accessibility to the electoral process, gender, technology, sustainability and conflict management – issues that always appear and are deeply linked to elections in the country.
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