CAN YOU BROADCAST AN ELECTION FAIRLY?
NORTHERN Ireland is a more divided society than Guyana. Hard to believe but it is. Ten plus years after peace came via the Good Friday Agreement there is still effectively housing apartheid between the Protestants and the Catholics. This divide is reflected in their politics – the ‘Prods’ vote Unionist, the ‘Taigs’ vote Nationalist. Elections are a religious census, tout court. Can you square the circle and please both sides in broadcasting an election in a divided society. The answer if you are BBC Northern Ireland is a firm ‘yes’.
I was last weekend a bystander to Ulster history. I was the BBC Network producer for their big two day election show fronted by David Dimbleby, the Walter Cronkite of British Television. I did not do much-Ulster is firmly at the edge of the TV union-but was able to watch over three days and nights from the inside how the BBC NI covers elections. There are several lessons for Guyana’s Television for the upcoming election or as you say(wrongly) elections..
1. Be patient. The election in Ulster took 48 hours to resolve. The chief elections officer and his staff varied from dilatory to sheer incompetence. Pantomine time-some ballot papers had to be processed using a hair drier after they got wet. He was regularly brought on screen to make excuses.
2. Never show your colours. Noel Thompson who fronted the coverage for 26 hours is a terrier to all and has an iron bladder to boot, but of what religion, is foreign to me. I have known him for thirty years and it has never come up. Senior BBC Northern Ireland ‘suits’ used to be all Protestant. No more.
3. Allow free speech but challenge the outrageous. Some of the politicians come out with slanderous lies against the other side. One party leader-for the once respected Ulster Unionists- called Sinn Fein-the political wing of the IRA now power sharing in government-‘scum’. He was rightly pilloried by Thompson.
4. It will be a rocky ride. Some results and some of the people may not be to your liking but in democracies the people-in constituencies by single transferable vote in Ulster-decide. Not the broadcasters. Some elected reps will blame the media for their fortune or misfortune. One stone age politician lambasted Thompson for daring to suggest he was, well, stone age. Point proven.
5. Carry results fast but make sure they are accurate. You lose authority if you ‘call’ elections wrong. Think GBC, Clem David and the 1993 Election in Guyana.
5. Make it look good. Modern graphics technology is superb at making the complicated simple. Use it to tell the story and to build the whole picture for the viewer. Elections (and Royal Weddings) are television magic moments.
But most of all, remember the campaign is over and the people have spoken with one or several voices. Your job as a broadcaster is not to rake over the coals, to fight new battles but to educate and inform the nation. Once all in Guyana accept that before and after the November(?)elections then professionalism and peace will break out. Let it. It is the only way.