Lragir, Armenia
Jan 11 2008

THE OBSERVERS AND THE ARMENIAN MEDIA

The Armenian voters are already used to the controversial, ambiguous
behavior of the international observers. The latest example is the
strange behavior of those observers in the early presidential
election of Georgia. The results of the previous poll on our site
suggest that the majority of our readers think the observers pursue
interests other than an objective evaluation of the election. In this
context, the statements by the head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation
mission Geert Ahrens are interesting, namely about the observation of
the Armenian mass media.

Dr. Ahrens stated that their observation mission will rely on their
own survey to evaluate the activities of the Armenian media.
According to him, the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission includes two
media analysts who may join the teams of Armenian specialists. He
said they will launch the monitoring of the state of the Armenian
media before the official start of the election campaign on January
21.

It should be noted that Yerevan Press Club and Team Center which
monitor the Armenian media regularly release the results of the
monitoring, which are worrying in the pre-election period. Perhaps
considering these results, the heads of the international
organizations, namely Terry Davis, recommended in a meeting with
Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan to hold an unbiased campaign and
provide equal opportunities for the candidates. For his part, Serge
Sargsyan accused the Armenian organizations which conduct monitoring,
and described the results they release as non-objective. Against this
background, Mr. Ahrens’ statement is interesting that they will
evaluate the activities of the media on the basis of their own
survey. It is not a secret that as the election is drawing nearer,
the media, particularly the TV channels will have to report on the
other candidates as well, and Ahrens will rely on the results of the
monitoring of this period, disregarding the state of the media in the
previous months.

The head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission also said that the
OSCE/ODIHR will not consider the result of the exit poll as a
definitive measurement. He said they will observe the results of the
exit poll as additional information which they have to study and
analyze.

By the way, in a meeting with Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan late in
2007 the U.S. Charge Joseph Pennington had proposed that the U.S.
International Republican Institute hold the exit poll in the
presidential election in Armenia, and Serge Sargsyan had agreed.