The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election holds a meeting with representatives of local news organisations.
The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election has called on local news organisations to provide fair and objective coverage of all campaign teams, in order to ensure a lawful, fair, just and clean Legislative Assembly Election, an event set for 12 September.
The Commission Chairman, Mr Tong Hio Fong, added that he believed local news outlets, based on their professionalism, would be able to make a distinction between a news report and “election propaganda” as defined in the Legislative Assembly Election Law.
Mr Tong made the comments today during a meeting with about 50 representatives from local media outlets that report, respectively, in Chinese, Portuguese and English.
News organisations played an important role in the election process, i.e. as a platform for members of the public to get access to election information in a timely manner. Additionally, such organisations’ supervisory function helped promote a fair, just and clean culture for elections, Mr Tong added.
The Commission Chairman explained the distinction between a news report and “electoral propaganda”. According to the Legislative Assembly Election Law, “electoral propaganda” has two key characteristics: a “calling for public attention toward certain candidate(s)”; and “suggesting, implicitly or explicitly, that voters vote or not vote for certain candidate(s)”. Only when these two elements were present simultaneously could information be classified as “electoral propaganda”, Mr Tong added.
In addition, campaigning activities would only be allowed within the official campaigning period, Mr Tong said. Other than that, according to the law, no individual or organisation could carry out campaigning activities, he added.
The Commission respected the freedom of the press and freedom of speech, as both were protected by the Basic Law and the Legislative Assembly Election Law, said Mr Tong.
In some cases, a person with involvement either in running an election campaign or standing as a candidate might also have other duties or roles in the community. In such situations news outlets might still interview those people for the purposes of a news report, during the period outside the election campaigning phase. Such news report would not be deemed contravening the Legislative Assembly Election Law as long as it shared only the interviewees’ commentary on either non-election current affairs or issues concerning people’s livelihoods, instead of any expressions of “electoral propaganda”. This was a manifestation of the freedom of the press, Mr Tong said.
Mr Tong suggested any media outlets wishing to feature in their channels interaction from the public, should advise those members of the public to act in line with the Legislative Assembly Election Law. Should such individuals fail to do so, their participation in such an event might have to be terminated immediately.
Regarding local media outlets’ social media accounts, the Commission Chairman said media organisations would be justified in deleting any comments left by the public concerning promotion of campaigning messages. In principle, media outlets would be excluded from any legal liability in such matters, if they took the necessary steps to address the matter, Mr Tong added.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Tong said no campaigning activities were allowed during the compulsory cooling-off period and on the election day itself. Provided news organisations had the respective capability and right conditions to manage their online platforms, they had a responsibility and a duty, during those campaigning blackout days, to shield or hide from the public any information that might be deemed as related to campaigning, and that could therefore risk influencing voter intention.
During the cooling-off period and on the election day, the respective candidate list and manifesto of all campaigning teams would still be made available to members of the public, via either the website of the Legislative Assembly or that of the Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly, or via promotional materials affixed in certain public spaces, Mr Tong added.
The Commission launched today telephone hotlines (Chinese-language version: 6368 3363 and Portuguese-language version: 6368 5944) for media enquiries relating to the 2021 Legislative Assembly Election.