ARMENIAN TV GIVES MORE COVERAGE TO EX-PRESIDENT AHEAD OF POLLS – SURVEY
Mediamax News Agency
Feb 14 2008
Armenia
Yerevan, 14 February: The Yerevan Press Club (YPC) today presented
the interim report of the monitoring of election campaign coverage
by broadcast media in Armenia in the period between 31 January and
9 February.
Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan, President of YPC Boris
Navasardyan stated that in this period the volume of editorial
coverage of the election campaign grew. This happened at the expense of
coverage of the Armenian presidential candidates who enjoy the greatest
interest of the media – ex-President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, leader of Orinats Yerkir
[Law-Governed Country] party Artur Baghdasaryan, candidate from the
People’s Party Tigran Karapetyan, member of [Armenian Revolutionary
Federation -] Dashnaktsutyun party bureau Vahan Hovhannesyan, leader
of the National Unity party Artashes Geghamyan and candidate from
the National Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan.
The YPC president noted that "in accordance with the tradition",
Tigran Karapetyan gained basic coverage on the ALM TV channel belonging
to him.
The Armenian ex-president enjoyed during the accounting period most
attention of eight researched broadcast media (37.016 seconds),
followed by Prime Minister of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan (32.786 seconds).
The YPC president stated that Levon Ter-Petrosyan remained the
undoubted leader as to the number of connotation-illustrated
mentions (143 negative and three positive). Also frequent are the
connotation-illustrated mentions of Serzh Sargsyan (83 positive and
24 negative).
Most polarized the coverage of the two candidates was on the Kentron TV
channel. Public TV of Armenia demonstrated balanced coverage stipulated
by law only concerning the distribution of airtime but not the manner
of coverage of the two candidates, Boris Navasardyan stated.