ECHO Research: Armenian media coverage generally balanced

armradio.am
08.02.2008 14:42

International ECHO Research Company today presented the report on the
results of the media monitoring in Armenia during the first week of the
pre-election campaign, which evidences its balanced coverage, Mediamax
reports.

The monitoring was ordered by the Brussels based European Foundation
for Democracy. `MediaBrand’ Company was the partner of ECHO Research in
Armenia.

`The research showed that the Armenian media are generally balanced,’
the Head of the ECHO Research Department Karen Prichard stated. `The
TV-channels quite fairly distribute the broadcast time among the
candidates, and the press is quite diverse,’ she stated, stressing,
however, the presence of considerable differences in the coverage of
the broadcast and print media.

The monitoring covered the basic news programs and interviews of the
presidential candidates of 8 broadcast media: The Public TV of Armenia,
`Armenia,’ `Second Armenian TV-Channel,’ `Yerkir-Media,’ `Kentron,’
`Shant,’ the Public Radio of Armenia and the Armenian Service of Radio
Liberty, and 12 newspapers: `Golos Armenii,’ `Agz,’ `Hayots Ashkhar,’
`Aravot,’ `Hayastani Hanrapetutyun,’ `Haykakan Zhamanak,’ `Novoye
Vremya,’ `Iravunk,’ `168 Zham,’ `Hayq,’ `Zhamanak-Yerevan’ and `Chorord
Ishkhanutyun’.

Experts of the International ECHO Research Company analyzed 743
TV-reports, radio-reports and newspaper articles, published in Armenia
within the first week of the pre-election campaign, and came to the
conclusion that 630 items from 743 showed no evidence of reporting
bias.

Presenting the report, the Director of ECHO Research Department Karen
Prichard called attention to an interesting fact: TV coverage was
overwhelmingly positive about the conduct of the elections, assessing
them as `democratic’ in virtually every item analyzed, whereas print
press judged their conduct as `undemocratic’ in almost 25% of cases.

The report notes that despite the `pro-government coverage,’ the Public
TV of Armenia provided broadcast time to other candidates as well, as
legally required.

Karen Prichard noted that `the tenor of the often powerfully-worded
critiques of all candidates in the media implies a considerable degree
of freedom of expression.’

All in all, the ECHO experts analyzed 390 newspaper items, 256 TV
reports and interviews and 97 radio reports and interviews and came to
the conclusion that the Armenian media are `heterogeneous.’ `573 of the
743 items took a balanced approach to each candidate they discussed,’
the report reads.

The conclusion of the report reads:

`Clearly, Armenia is a country in transition. Its media sphere is not
perfect. However, media are not, for the most part, menaced by
political forces ` and when media comes under pressure, that pressure
is reported on.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress