Centre for Civic Education (CCE) will conduct a qualitative and quantitative monitoring of media campaign for local elections that are to be held on 27 May, 2018 in Podgorica. Project ‘SPINoFACT 3 – Political advertising between spin and facts’ represents a continuation of homonymous projects SPINoFACT 1 (carried out during November and December 2017 for local elections in Mojkovac, Petnjica and Cetinje, which then supported the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands) and SPINoFACT 2 (carried out during March and April 2018 for presidential elections).
The monitoring will include period from the day upon expiration of deadline for submitting electoral lists, 2 May until 27 May 2018, and the research will involve confirmed electoral lists, its holders and candidates.
The research will encompass informative shows of televisions – RTCG 1, Vijesti, Pink M, Prva and A1 television; daily newspapers’ reporting – Vijesti, Dan, Pobjeda, Dnevne novine and Sloboda; as well as portals – Café del Montenegro (CdM), Analitika, Vijesti, RTCG, Antena M, FOSmedia i IN4S.
How much, in what manner and in which media were the election lists advertised? How did media report during the electoral campaign? Was the principle of balanced presentation of election offers complied with and to what extent? These are all questions to which CCE researchers will seek answers in the forthcoming period.
The project ‘SPINoFACT 3 – Political advertising between spin and facts’ aims to contribute to the promotion of good practices and improvement of the legislative framework when it comes to political advertising and presentation of election offers in the media in Montenegro. The specific objective of the project is improvement of cooperation between media, relevant institutions, political parties and non-governmental organisations, as well as raising awareness of the public on importance of political advertising and more quality and more objective informing citizens during election campaigns.
Zeljka Cetkovic, programme associate