IEC Media Commission Press Conference Notes, Sept 23

The Media Commission of the Independent Election Commission held a press conference in Kabul Thursday to pass on its findings about  media during the election, including violations during the silent period 48 hours before the poll. Here are our notes of the speech by the Media Commission’s Chairman Naseer Sherzai:

Sherzai thanked the media for their role throughout the campaign but noted some candidates showed a lack of interest in the media. In the coming week all decisions by the commission will be published on the IEC website. 

He said the commission was still looking for data and complaints and at this stage  didn’t yet have the total number of violations. 

The commission had two groups observing for media violations. The first group observed and the second group was responsible for stopping any breaches.

There were 11 items at this stage that the commission had identified as being in breach of the Electoral Law during the campaign.

But on election day they had recorded 92 violations committed by 15 television stations, 13 radio stations and three newspapers. Some 62 of these were by television stations, 27 by radio stations and three breaches by newspapers.