COVERING OF ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN IS MAINLY OF INCIDENT CHARACTER, CAUCASUS MEDIA INSTITUTE MENTIONS

Noyan Tapan
May 15 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. "Covering of the electoral campaign of
the parties participating in the parliamentary elections by the Public
Television and Public Radio was in general balanced." Nina Iskandarian,
the program head, stated about it on May 15 when presenting the
results of the monitoring implemented by the Caucasus Media Institute.

However, in her words, some private TV channels displayed clearly
differed approach in the issue of giving broadcast time to parties. So,
the ARF prevailed with the broadcast time given to it by Yerkir
Media. 46% of the total time of political programs was given to it. The
most part of broadcast time of the Shant TV company was given for
propaganda campaign of the Republican Party of Armenia and Bargavach
Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) party, and the most part of the political
broadcast time of the Kentron TV was given to Bargavach Hayastan.

In N. Iskandarian’s words, though the mass media being observed gave
much information concerning parties to voters, however, covering of
the electoral campaign was mainly of incident character: the voter was
not presented the political forces’ programs, variants of solution of
important social, educational and other issues proposed by them, etc.

To recap, the monitoring was implemented by the Council of Europe
and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation,