Earlier this week the Commissariaat voor de Media (The Dutch Media Authority; hereafter referred to as ‘CvdM’) sent a letter to the political parties in the Caribbean Netherlands (CN) which are participating in the Island Council elections of the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, to inform them about the airtime which is awarded to political parties. Pursuant to the Mediawet BES (BES Media Act) the CvdM has awarded political parties airtime on the broadcasting services of the three islands.
Amount of airtime awarded
Each political party whose appellation has been recorded in the register of appellations for the elections of the members of the Island Council of one of the three public entities, will be awarded airtime to broadcast one radio spot with a length of 1 minute and 20 seconds and one television spot with a length of 3 minutes on the broadcasting services of the public entity concerned.
Order and allocation of the awarded airtime
The broadcasting services in the CN should make this airtime available. The radio and/or television broadcasts will take place in the period from 7 March 2015 through 13 March 2015 between 12:00 and 14:00 hours, and one spot of a political party will be broadcast per day. During the week of the elections and the preceding weekend no airtime will be awarded to political parties. The draw which determines the order in which the political parties will broadcast the spots, has been performed by a notary public. This draw also determined the allocation of the airtime to the broadcasting services.
The political parties should use the airtime which has been awarded them fully and solely for their political programme.
This decree of the CvdM will be published in 14 days on: www.cvdm.nl