INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Democratic Elections and Media

EVVALUATION SURVEY REPORT
CONDUCTED AMONG THE PUBLIC AND JOURNALISTS

PREFACE
More than 10 years have been passed since free press has became a reality in Mongolia. During this period the Mongolian journalists experienced 4 democratic elections of the Parliament.

The present survey was conducted by Globe International, a Mongolian NGO in the framework of project " Democratic elections and media", which was financially supported by UNESCO. It was aimed at testing public opinion how Mongolian media was balanced and fair during the Parliamentrain Elections held in June 27, 2004 and exposing challenges and difficulties that Mongolian journalists face in covering elections.

Survey involved 500 citizens aged above 18 and 200 journalists working in the news and current affairs from 30 media outlets, which represent app. 10% of working journalists.

Media freedom is one of fundamental prinicples of democracy and an essential part of human rights. So the public opinion on media actions should be the main reference document for mass media in fulfilment of their duties to be public watchdog.

We deeply express our many thanks to UNESCO in running the project and conducting this survey.

H.Naranjargal, project leader

I. PUBLIC OPINION

1.1. FRAME

There are many things that affect the results of election campaign and voting but media plays the main role. It is important that media disseminate balanced, objective and fair election information. That is why media should be independent from any political parties, coalition or movement acting professionally and serve the only public interest. Media has duty to fairly assist the voters in exercising thier right to know accessing impartial and balanced information on activities of all parts involved to the elections. It depends how media is professional and ethical during the elections.

Questionaires distributed to 500 citizens residing in Ulaanbaatar city, where the most of media outlets are concertrated.

Table 1. Age categories

Survey involved all the age categories and their educational background shows sufficient social representation

Table 2. Education

1.2. HOW DID MEDIA WORK DURING THE ELECTIONS?

Broadcasting is the most effective and influencial media. Waves they use are public property and there is always limited access. According to international standards broadcast media must serve the public providing fair and balanced information on election campaign. Private print media is permitted to announce their preferences. 86% of respondents said that they received election information from media and 14% from other sources such as billboards, promotional fliers and etc. 91.4 % of those used TV.

Table 3. Information received by the public

To question " Was the information sufficient to make your choice?" 51.2% said it was not sufficient and 48. 4% think it was sufficient. 0.4% respondents did not reply. Those, who considered the information was not sufficient, explained what kind of information they wanted in the following ways:

Table 4. The most wanted information

1.3. HOW FAIR DID ACT MONGOLIAN MEDIA?

67.8% respondents insist that Mongolian media could not act fairly enough during the elections. 17.4% think media was fair and 14.8 % said they did not have any ideas. From 335 persons, who focused on unfairness, 73.4% consider media served one party.

Table 5. Unfairness occured

92.5% of respondents said unfaireness occured on TV and 15.2% of respondents said radio was not fair. Others metion newspapers. Respondents were asked to name the most unfair television channel and results are below.

Table 6. TV channels covered elections unfairly