KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Media freedom is the most crucial component in ensuring elections are conducted fairly, said a British professor specialising in electoral systems, pointing it is more important than an accountable Election Commission (EC).

Professor Sarah Birch, who specialises in comparative politics at the University of Glasgow, said today that institutionalised bodies such as the EC is kept in check by media watchdogs.

“What you need really is for the election administrator to held accountable... for that you need a judiciary, civil society movement and a free and fair media.

“In the analysis I done in the past of the three, it suggest that media is the most important... a free and fair media is the single most important thing in making sure free and fair election,” said Birch at a forum here.

Speaking at the “Retaining power through elections: When democracy enables autocracy” forum, she said manipulation of the media, among others, were subtler forms of manipulations as it most likely to go unnoticed.

“They may not know what they watch on television or read in the newspapers that the media is manipulated or be aware of it.

“So it is a much safer way of manipulating elections,” said Birch.

During Election 2013, Putrajaya had offered Pakatan Rakyat (PR) a 10-minute airtime on state-owned Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) to make its pitch to voters during national polls but it was vehemently rejected by the opposition pact.

In explaining its snub then, PR said the offer was an “insult” as the network only screened BN-friendly news and advertisements at other times and voiced concern its manifesto presentation would not be aired live.

Other forms of election fraud, said Birch include manipulation of voter choice most commonly by slandering political opponents, vote buying, intimidation and sometimes violence.

She added that the “most risky” type of manipulation would be to mess with the electoral roll by including non-existing voters, voting more than once or by wrongly tabulating the ballots.

“It is less likely though with the observers internationally and domestically watching over the processes and even less so in contemporary times,” said Birch.

She pointed that despite various check and balances that have been put into place to ensure the integrity of the election process, Birch said no system has been without manipulation.

“But what you need to have are the institutions in place to hold them accountable, at all times,” said Birch.