Media on Elections and Violence 2016
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REPORTING ELECTORAL VIOLENCE (ERV) Introduction CMFR has applied media monitoring and content analysis to electoral coverage. Comprehensive reports were issued for the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections, documenting bias, noting gaps in reporting and the failure to keep citizens informed about candidates seeking public office. The last election in 2013 was described as relatively peaceful by Philippine National Police and the Commission on Elections; even with about 50 killed on record by May 14 that year. Repetitive news about certain things can dull public sensibility and raise a level of tolerance for political violence. This can also remove the sense of urgency to do something about it. A focused fund on Mindanao enabled CMFR to monitor the experience of electoral violence through the prism of media reportage. Violence in itself requires a more strategic policy response based on the issues of conflict that give rise to violence. While elections are only a part of the democratic system, these are a critical starting point, and in many ways, projected as a touchstone of what constitutes democracy. People should be free to choose among those presenting themselves as candidates. But the exercise now calls for review. In more developed systems, required revision may focus on the questions of representation. In countries with less electoral experience, concerns about elections focus on procedures as a way to ensure that elections are free and fair. In the ASEAN neighborhood, the Philippines can boast of more experience in the holding of elections. But the violence that intrudes on its conduct may suggest distressing reality about the context of Philippine democracy. And the periodic holding of elections may actually paper over and prevent the examination of these issues. Rationale The vote is a political exercise, central and essential to democracy. The electoral process and the vote have remained without equal as a mechanism for the selection of the government leaders. It has also proven as an alternative to violent political transitions. “But experience in developing democracies has shown that violence continues to be used as an instrument of political contests. “When conflict or violence occurs, it is not a result of an electoral process; it is the breakdown of an electoral process.”(Fischer, 2002) The application of media monitoring on election-related violence ties the importance of news in Philippine national affairs. The much touted press freedom presents the press as a source of autonomous assessment and critique of the exercise of political power. How well is this function applied to purpose of stemming the force of violence on Philippine politics and elections? Political campaigns employ the media in the shaping of a favourable opinion for candidates. Perhaps then, the news can influence collective decision-making about addressing the preponderance of violence as a political instrument. Project Objectives The project hoped to provide some answers to this question by setting forth the following procedural objectives: To track the incidence of violence during the 2016 national elections;
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