Political communication seen by political parties

The Club of Venice is an informal forum of chief communication officers and PR experts of EU institutions and member states. It has been collaborating with the KAS Media Program South East Europe on many occasions. At the plenary meeting 2014 in Rome about 80 experts discussed the current state of political communication in Europe. Christian Spahr outlined the situation of political communication in South East Europe and explained: "Government bodies and parties are the most important institutional political actors in a democracy. They both need to understand professional communication as a strategic goal, since they rely on the recognition and support of the citizens."

Political communication is becoming more and more important because many citizens want to understand what is happening and to get into contact with politicians directly via web 2.0 and social media. Especially, in transitional countries there is this need since democratic procedures are not familiar for everybody in the same way. "The role of the spokesperson within a political party is important. Not all party leaders give PR personnel a direct access to them and understand the communications department as a strategic partner and advisor," said Spahr.

Another challenge in South East Europe is that media reports are highly polarised. Quite often, they are either strongly in favour or against the government. Moreover, opposition parties have greater difficulties to receive media attention than in Western Europe, because parties involved in the government have much better access to influence media.

However, Spahr also identified positive developments. Basically all of the parties affiliated to the European People's Party (EPP) in South East Europe have designated communication divisions which are not only issuing press releases. Moreover, almost all party leaders have a Facebook profile and one in three party headquarters twitters in the name of its leader. However, many party leaders still reserve appearances in front of TV cameras for themselves. Only one in two does have an explicit press spokesperson that makes statements on his or her behalf.

This shows that the profession of press spokesperson is still undergoing developments. According to Spahr, many PR experts emphasise that there is still a great need for further professionalization. This encourages the KAS Media Program South East Europe to continue offering professional training and gatherings for party spokespersons.

Author: Darija Fabijanić, KAS Media Program South East Europe