Juba media monitoring centre. Photo: Brigitte Sins/IMS

Sudanese media’s coverage of the country’s first elections in a quarter of a century reflects the political power structures in Sudan and a cautious use of hate speech

By Brigitte Sins, IMS

The results of the fifth and sixth monitoring reports of Sudanese media’s coverage of the country’s multi-party elections show that a majority of space and time was allocated to the winning candidates and parties both during and following the elections, but with less examples of “hate speech than expected. The media monitoring is carried out by IMS and five national and international partners who make up the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium (SMEC) in support of free and professional media in Sudan.

Leading parties dominate coverage

Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Sudan's incumbent President, who won another term with 68 per cent of the votes, was the candidate receiving the most media coverage during and after the election campaigning period, followed by coverage of the main opposition party SPLM in the South.

Salva Kiir, the leader of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), won re-election in the presidential poll in Sudan's semi-autonomous southern region. He won 92.9 per cent of the 2,616,613 votes in the South. Especially during the vote counting period, the mass media in the South devoted most of their news to SPLM. Southern Sudan television (SSTV) for instance devoted about 85 percent of its election news to SPLM immediately after the elections (11 – 25 April) and a newspaper like Southern Eye allocated 100 percent of its space to SPLM in its elections reporting.

The media representing the North devoted the majority of election news to NCP. This trend was already visible at the start of campaigning period in February. It is noticeable that the media representing the specific regions are often positive in their tone when they report on the main political actors of their region, especially the media in the South.

Communication vehicles for political parties

The media’s coverage overwhelmingly directed at the two leading parties during the election campaign may have had an influence on the public’s choice to cast their votes for the two main parties. It is more likely, however, that the way in which the media have covered the elections is a consequence of the political media landscape in the country. The freedom of the media is often restricted and they are sometimes considered to be communication vehicles of political power structures.

Positive developments

The media did undergo a positive development during the elections. They tried and succeeded in following the elections as detailed as possible on a national and local level, where not only official sources were heard, but also the voices of voters were aired and printed. Mentors who were part of the SMEC Media Training component and placed in various media houses throughout the country, reported that the journalists they worked with visited polling stations to follow what was happening on the ground. For many media this was a new experience where some radio journalists managed to do live-reporting on location using their mobile phones to do a phone-in, as was the case at South Sudan Radio.

Media careful about hate speech

Another striking finding of the media monitoring during the elections in Sudan was that the media were extremely careful in spreading harsh language or hate speech. Apart from during the last days of campaigning when the mass media allowed a platform for politicians to fire up opposition candidates through aggressive verbal attacks on one another, the media hardly spread hate speech during the election period. Only 30 cases of hate speech were observed where politicians and political parties were responsible for 28 of these cases. This shows that media were inclined to stick to balanced reporting, taking into account the possible security risks.

Read the English and Arabic version of the Fifth Sudan Media Monitoring Report here.

Read the English version of the sixth Sudan Media Monitoring Report here.

Notes to the editor

The Sudan Media and Elections project is implemented by the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium (SMEC), a group of national and international organisations with expertise in media support. The SMEC carries out media monitoring of four TV stations, seventeen radio channels and thirteen newspapers in Sudan on a daily basis.

Media Monitoring Units began their activities on 13 February 2010 at the opening of the election campaign. Monitoring will continue until the end of May 2010 to assess post election coverage.

The Media and Elections Project, funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is implemented by the Sudan Media and Elections Consortium, a group of national and international organisations with expertise in media support. The group comprises the Sudanese Development Initiative (SUDIA), International Media Support (IMS), the Arab Working Group for Media Monitoring (AWG), Fojo Media Institute, Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), and Osservatorio di Pavia.