The media coverage of the general elections grew considerably in March. Radio and TV almost doubled airtime on candidates and parties compared with February, reports the Sudan Media and Election Consortium (SMEC).
The main focus was on the national and South Sudan Presidential elections. SMEC concluded in its latest report, published today, that the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) received the highest percentage of airtime and space in newspapers.The coverage of women was still low. Radio remained stable with 6 percent of its election airtime devoted to women. On TV the percentage dropped from 5 to 4 percent.
SMEC detected an increase of hate speech, mirroring an escalation of campaigning. Most cases concerned defamation and were published in print media. A slight decrease of inflammatory language was noted on radio.