Schedule for Party Political Broadcasts, General Election 2001

Dated: 25 October 2001

The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) will make available through the broadcasters air-time on radio on television for Party Political Broadcasts.


Eligibility for these Broadcasts will be determined by the number of candidates fielded by a recognised political party under a recognised party symbol.

Independents, and political parties fielding less than six candidates under the same recognised party symbol will not be eligible for air-time. The minimum of six candidates is the same as that set for the General Elections in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1991 and 1997.

Political parties eligible for the Broadcasts will be allocated air-time according to the number of candidates they field. There will be two Party Political Broadcasts:

• One for broadcast on 27 Oct 2001

• One for broadcast on 1 Nov 2001

Relevant details pertaining to these Party Political Broadcasts are attached with this news release. The details relate to:

• Eligibility for air-time

• Duration of air-time

• Content of Broadcasts

• Speakers, scripts and translations

• Order of Broadcasts

Times of transmission of these Party Political Broadcasts will be given in due course.

SINGAPORE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY


General Election 2001

Party Political Broadcasts

Eligibility for Air-time

Eligibility for air-time will be determined by the number of candidates fielded by a recognised political party under a recognised party symbol.

Independents, and a political party fielding less than 6 candidates under the same recognised party symbol will not be eligible for party political broadcasts on radio or on television.

Duration of Air-time

There will be two party political broadcasts:

A political party eligible for air-time will be allocated time for each of the two broadcasts according to the number of candidates fielded by it as follows:

One period means one broadcast in each of the 4 languages, that is, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. Each broadcast will be transmitted once on radio and once on television.

All the broadcasts will be pre-recorded. The allocated duration for each broadcast cannot be exceeded. A recording will be faded off at the end of the allocated duration regardless whether the speaker has completed delivery of his text or not, and this will be broadcast as recorded.

The duration of air-time allocated for the second broadcast will be the same as for the first broadcast.

Content of Broadcasts

All the broadcasts will be on a party basis. They should not contain matter of a libellous or criminal nature.

The purpose of such broadcasts is to make clear a political party's platform. The platforms of other parties eligible for these broadcasts may, however, be referred to.

The content must be the same for all the language versions of a party political broadcast.

Speakers, scripts and translations

The political parties eligible for the broadcasts will provide their own scripts and speakers in all the four languages.

The Singapore Broadcasting Authority and the broadcasters will not provide translations or speakers in any of the languages.

Speakers nominated by the parties for the broadcasts must be candidates standing for election.

If a party does not provide a script or a speaker for any language broadcast, the party will lose that particular broadcast.

Order of Broadcasts

The order of the party political broadcasts on radio and television will be determined by the number of candidates fielded.

The broadcast of the party fielding the least number of candidates will be on first, the broadcast of the party fielding the largest number of candidates will be on last.

If two or more parties have an equal number of candidates, the order or broadcast will be decided by a draw to be carried out in the presence of the CEO of SBA or his nominee and the duly authorised representatives of the parties concerned.