QUANTITATIVE DATA PROMISING

Panorama.am
22:24 14/05/2007

In a meeting with reporters, Team Research Center and Yerevan Press
Club (YPC) released initial results of a study conducted among
mass media in the course of National Assembly elections 2007. Boris
Navasardyan, president of YPC, said the club will publish a booklet
on the monitoring in a month. The publication will include qualitative
data in line with quantitative information.

At the moment, the study suggests "a change in the atmosphere among
the Armenian mass media." Navasardyan said actors with different
points of view had the chance to express their opinions. He said
news coverage was relatively balanced. However, there is a need
"for information-analytical reports."

Navasardyan said despite of relative balance, the authorities
in power tried to use May 10 as a medium "to make the final
impression." Armenian Republican Party (HHK), Prosperous Armenia (BHK)
and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnakcutiun) were the ones
who appeared most on the last day of the campaign.

There was no coverage on activities of some dozen other political
parties.

Summing up the results, Navasardyan assessed the work of mass media as
"positive" especially when he compares that with the year 2006, which,
according to the speaker, "was the worst year in terms of freedom
of mass media in Armenia." The club president said the results of
the elections coincide by 70-80 percent with their coverage in the
media. "That is, the political parties received as many votes as many
news reports were released on their activities," he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress