The right to freedom of opinion and expression in electoral contexts 2014, para. 59
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- State-owned or public media broadcasters bear an extra responsibility to ensure that the political platforms of all candidates and parties across the political spectrum are given coverage. Furthermore, public media sources have an important role in ensuring critical analysis and the availability of countervailing viewpoints. Several national courts have ruled that State-run media have a responsibility to publish replies by critics of the Government to government statements on controversial issues. The Supreme Court of India, for example, recognized the right of reply to political statements in the columns of a government-owned publication. The Court held that a public-sector agency publishing an in-house journal, owing to its status as an instrument of government, had a duty of fairness to its readers, and demanded that both viewpoints be placed before its readers, however limited be their number, to enable them to draw their own conclusions. The media guidelines issued by UNTAC also set out the duty of balance and impartiality in detail. Guideline 8 provides: "Media outlets should give parties, groups or individuals whose views have been misrepresented or maligned by a publication or broadcast the 'right of response' in the same media outlet".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Freedom of Opinion, Report to the HRC (2014), A/HRC/26/30, para. 59.
- Paragraph number
- 59
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