ACCORDING TO MONITORING RESULTS, ARMENIAN TELEVISION COMPANIES ALMOST DO NOT COVER ACTIVITIES OF THREE OPPOSITION PARTIES
Noyan Tapan
Mar 08 2007
YEREVAN, MARCH 8, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian television companies
almost do not cover activities of the three opposition political
forces – "Republic", "Heritage" and "New Times" parties. Chairman of
the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian stated this at the March 7
press conference. Presenting results of the monitoring of political
programmes broadcast by 7 television companies of Armenia in the
months preceding the official propaganda of parliamenatry elections,
he at the same time noted that juding from the data of February 2007,
statements of most of the opposition parties about inaccessibility
of TV time are not fully grounded. According to B. Navasardian, the
pre-election political situation was most actively covered by Kentron
TV company which provided the greatest amount of TV time to various
parties. Kentron and Yerkir Media television companies invited the
greatest number of political figures for interviews and broadcast a
considerable number of social-political programmes.
Armenia TV is the company paying least attention to politics – since
early 2007, it has not demonstrated a number of social-political
programmes. Exception was made only for the RA defence minister,
chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Board Serge
Sargsian. 85.5% of ALM company’s TV time was allocated for coverage
of the activities and position of the telecompany director Tigran
Karapetian and the People’s Party headed by him. The TV companies paid
most attention to two parties of the ruling coalition – ARF and RPA,
as well as to the "Prosperous Armenia" Party which is also close to the
authorities. H-1 television company covered most widely the activities
of RPA, "Orinats Yerkir" party, ARF, People’s Party of Armenia and
"National Unity" Party. B. Navasardian said that the purpose of the
monitoring was not to register legislative violations as laws do not
regulate clearly coverage of politocal forces’a activities before
the start of official propaganda campaign. Responding to questions
of reporters, B. Navasardian noted that on the whole, requirements
of the legislation on activities of broadcasting media are almost
not fulfilled. Particularly, there are numerous violations in terms
of advertizing, programmed policy, and changes in programs presented
for accreditation. In his words, the work of National Commission of
Television and Radio, which supervises fulfilment of law requirements
by broadcasting companies, can be called inefficient.