(Periodistas/IFEX) – The following is a 5 November 1999 Periodistas press release: The Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires has just sanctioned a law regulating the financing and duration of electoral polls. This law is an auspicious contribution to open government, which we commend. However, it includes an article which alarms us and which […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – The following is a 5 November 1999 Periodistas press
release:
The Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires has just sanctioned a law
regulating the financing and duration of electoral polls. This law is an
auspicious contribution to open government, which we commend. However, it
includes an article which alarms us and which is echoed in other national
bills.
We refer to the article which prohibits the “distribution, publication,
commentary or references, in any media, of the results of electoral gallup
polls”, for 48 hours prior to the termination of voting.
We are witnessing this candid suppression of freedom of expression with
alarm. But we are further preoccupied that the legislators have opted for
this restriction, rather than find a solution to the problems. First in
Tucumán, and then in the Buenos Aires elections of last month, polls
conducted near the ballot boxes contained errors that were easily rectified
when the votes were counted. The errors that occurred do not justify the
decision to prohibit the polling. Following that logic, candidates should be
prohibited and penalised for assuming victory, and for allowing members of
the organisation to celebrate in the streets, without waiting for the final
tally of votes.
Various media and journalists have reflected self-critically on their usage
of the results of these polls. This path toward maturity would be aborted by
this ban.
In order to prevent erroneous polls from influencing voters’ decisions, the
Buenos Aires legislators have committed an offence against free access to
information.
To believe that the polls can change or, even worse, determine the vote, is
to underestimate the voting populace. Polls are only another piece of
information that voters consider at the moment they select their
representatives. No single element of the process has a linear influence.
However all of them, together, allow the electorate to be sufficiently
informed.
Democracy is still a young institution in Argentina. The correct usage of
its tools requires time to mature and learn. This will only come to pass
through experience and not despite it. This ban gives rise to a dangerous
precedent that Periodistas wishes to advert.
