PRIVATE BROADCASTERS DEFEND ELECTION COVERAGE
By Astghik Bedevian and Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 11 2007

Armenia’s two largest private broadcasters defended on Tuesday their
coverage of the intensifying presidential race which has been strongly
criticized by an independent media watchdog.

The Yerevan Press Club (YPC) said on Monday that the Armenian
state television and six private networks have essentially confined
that coverage to two presidential candidates, Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian. It said they have
been aggressively promoting Sarkisian while showing "unprecedented"
bias against Ter-Petrosian. The YPC was particularly critical of the
government-controlled Public Television and Radio.

The Public TV’s H1 channel, the most accessible in Armenia, refused
to comment on the criticism. Officials at the Public Radio could not
be reached for comment.

Unveiling the findings of its November monitoring of the TV air, the
YPC said the private Armenia TV network devoted as much as 80 percent
of its news reporting to Sarkisian’s public engagements. The prime
minister was cast in a positive light in almost all of the
reports aired by the channel partly owned by Gerard Cafesjian,
a U.S. businessman of Armenian descent.

"If the prime minister is doing a very good job all the time,
we must cover his activities," said Gagik Mkrtchian, the Armenia
TV news chief. He denied any bias against Ter-Petrosian and other
opposition candidates.

The news chief of another major private network, H2, also defended
its highly positive coverage of Sarkisian. "We have mainly covered
his actions taken in his capacity as prime minister," said Shavarsh
Gevorgian. "We have covered the work of the government."

"I don’t think that not covering every minor event related to Levon
Ter-Petrosian means not covering the opposition," Gevorgian told
RFE/RL. "We have covered virtually all opposition leaders."

According to the YPC, H2, which is owned by a businessman close to
President Robert Kocharian, aired 57 Ter-Petrosian-related reports
last month and 37 of them were "negative." Another private TV station,
Kentron, was found to have been even been even more biased against
the former president. Kentron, which is controlled by another
Kocharian-linked tycoon, declined a comment.

Ter-Petrosian aides, meanwhile, continued to complain about their lack
of access to electronic media. "All electronic media are assisting in
the regime’s reproduction," claimed Aleksandr Arzumanian, a former
foreign minister. "No serious politician is able to express their
views on those channels. What is more, H1 and other media controlled
by the authorities present a distorted picture of events."

Arzumanian did not confirm or refute the YPC’s assertion that some
TV stations have offered to interview Ter-Petrosian but have been
turned down by the latter. He said only that the ex-president will be
more open to the media after the official start of the presidential
election campaign.