BAGHDASARIAN LAMENTS ‘LACK OF TV COVERAGE’
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 12 2007

Close associates of Artur Baghdasarian accused Armenia’s leading TV
stations on Wednesday of imposing an "information blockade" on the
leader of the opposition Orinats Yerkir Party and a major candidate
in the 2008 presidential election.

They claimed that the broadcasters, all of them loyal to the
government, are deliberately ignoring Baghdasarian and election-related
events featuring him. Mher Shahgeldian, the Orinats Yerkir deputy
chairman, said the former parliament speaker has made "only" five
televised appearances since the May parliamentary elections.

Shahgeldian also pointed to the TV stations’ failure to report the
former parliament speaker’s Tuesday meeting with the Yerevan-based
ambassadors of European Union member states. "All TV companies
reported on Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s meeting with European
ambassadors for several times, while Artur Baghdasarian’s meeting
with the ambassadors was not covered at all," he said.

In a written statement, Orinats Yerkir said on Tuesday that
Baghdasarian discussed with the diplomats "a broad range of issues
relating to the presidential elections." He also presented his views on
"key domestic and foreign policy issues," the statement said.

Both Shahgeldian and another Orinats Yerkir leader, Heghine Bisharian,
admitted that they too have been invited to TV talk shows of late and
that their party has been able to air promotional videos on national
and local channels. But they said that is not enough to present their
candidate’s platform to voters.

The television coverage of the presidential race has so far centered
on two candidates, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian and former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian. The Yerevan Press Club, an independent media
watchdog, has strongly criticized Armenian state TV and the main
private networks for being openly supportive of Sarkisian and extremely
hostile towards his most bitter challenger. Two of them dismissed
the criticism on Tuesday.

While lamenting the perceived lack of access to the TV air, the
Orinats Yerkir leaders were confident that their party will have no
trouble raising donations for Baghdasarian’s election campaign.

Armenia’s Election Code allows presidential hopefuls to spend up to
70 million drams ($230,000) each for that purpose.

"We will do everything to raise the maximum [amount of campaign
funding,]" said Bisharian. "We will not have any financial problems."

Bisharian, who is also Baghdasarian’s campaign manager, claimed that
"many businessmen" continue to support the ex-speaker despite mass
defections of wealthy Orinats Yerkir parliamentarians that accompanied
the party’s 2006 ouster from the governing coalition. She did not
name any of those businessmen, though.

"Those who have a good taste are with Artur Baghdasarian," she said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress