PRELIMINARY REPORT OF YEREVAN PRESS CLUB ON MONITORING THE COVERAGE OF ELECTIONS TO YEREVAN COUNCIL OF ELDERLY BY TV CHANNELS
ArmInfo
2009-06-01 12:28:00
ArmInfo. On April 16 – May 29, 2009 Yerevan Press Club with the
financial support of the Open Society Institute monitored the coverage
of elections to the Council of Elderly of Yerevan of May 31, 2009,
by the broadcast media.
The preliminary results were reported at Friday Debate Club, Monday.
The research was administered in two stages: first stage – April 16
– May 1, 2009 (ahead of the pre-election promotion); second stage –
May 2-29, 2009 (period of pre-election promotion).
The monitoring covered 7 TV channels: 3 national ones – First Channel
of the Public Television of Armenia, "ALM", Second Armenian TV Channel;
4 channels of Yerevan – "ArmNews", "Yerkir Media", "Kentron", "Shant".
The monitoring object was all programs, aired at the evening prime
time of the abovementioned TV channels, containing references to six
parties and one party bloc/their leaders/representatives, running in
the elections of Yerevan Council of Elderly; as well as the airtime,
allocated for pre-election promotion of parties/bloc.
THE COVERAGE BY THE TV CHANNELS STUDIED both ahead of (April 16-
May 1, 2009) and during (May 2-29, 2009) the official pre-election
promotion, if one judges by the proportion of neutral and connotational
references, was characterized by relative impartiality. Thus, during
the pre-election promotion 95.8% of all references to parties/bloc,
running in elections, were neutral.
In terms of the nature of coverage the 7 political forces, running in
elections, can be conventionally classed into four categories. The
monitoring group classed with the first category the Popular Party,
which received greatest attention both during the sixteen days (April
16 – May 1, 2009), directly preceding the pre- election promotion
(44,481.6 sec.), and during the four weeks (May 2-29, 2009) of the
pre-election promotion itself (112,144.1 sec.). The main distinctive
feature in the coverage of the Popular Party was the fact that the
lion share of the airtime it received (94.7% before the pre-election
promotion and 89.1% during the pre- election promotion) came from
"ALM" TV channel, owned by the leader of Popular Party Tigran
Karapetian. Tigran Karapetian himself (heading the electoral list
of the party) got 98% of all airtime, allocated to his party at both
stages of the research.
The second category includes four parties, making up until recently
the ruling coalition: "Prosperous Armenia" (82,291 sec. on all 7 TV
channels on May 2-29), "Dashnaktsutiun" (66,987.8 sec.), Republican
Party (58,126.2 sec.),"Orinats Yerkir" (57,113.6 sec.). In terms of
aggregate volume of coverage, these four parties immediately follow
the Popular Party, yet the attention to them was distributed much
more evenly among all channels studied than it was in the case of
Popular Party.
The third category includes Armenian National Congress bloc that
is somewhat behind the quartet of the second category, but is also
the only of the 7 political forces, running in elections, to have
a negative balance of connotation references (0 positive versus 4
negative ones) during the pre-election promotion. Unlike 4 out of 5
parties, classed with the first and the second categories, the Armenian
National Congress has not received explicit attention on any of the TV
channels: while it was the leader during the pre-election promotion
in terms of coverage on the First Channel of Public Television of
Armenia, the gap between it and its rivals was insignificant.
Finally, the fourth category included the Labor Socialist Party of
Armenia, which was an explicit outsider in terms of the interest
received from TV channels during the pre-election promotion –
both overall, and on 6 of the 7 studied. It received the least
coverage and was referred to much more seldom than its rivals. The
Labor Socialist Party of Armenia was also the only that received no
connotation reference.
THIS PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN was most intensively covered by "ALM" TV
channels. The aggregate airtime this channel gave to 7 parties/bloc
was more than twice as much as that given by the other two most
active TV channels, "Yerkir Media" and "Kentron". Notably, 62.1%
of all airtime, allocated by "ALM" to 7 parties/bloc, was given to
Popular Party. Another significant feature is the fact that all three
TV channels that made up the trio of leaders in terms of attention to
elections had distinct political preferences, as mentioned above. This
can be interpreted to the effect that the wish of TV channels to
contribute to the victory of a certain political force is a more
powerful factor, stimulating their interest in elections, than their
mission to inform the public about important political campaigns.
DURING THE PRE-ELECTION PROMOTION the most balanced coverage of
elections was that on the air of the First Channel of the Public
Television of Armenia. The time, allocated to parties/bloc in the
editorial coverage, was distributed relatively evenly: Armenian
National Congress (greatest volume) received 4,639.9 sec., while the
Labor Socialist Party of Armenia (least volume) had 2,392.7 sec. In
terms of frequency of reference the first here was the Republican
Party of Armenia (67), the last – the Labor Socialist Party of Armenia
(15). 97.4% of references of parties/bloc on the PTA First Channel
were neutral.
In terms of airtime allocated to all parties/bloc during the
pre-election promotion the most balanced, after the PTA First
Channel was the Second Armenian TV Channel. These two are followed by
"ArmNews", "Shant", "Kentron", "Yerkir Media", "ALM".
In terms of frequency of reference to parties/bloc during the
pre-election promotion the most balanced, after the PTA First Channel,
was "Shant". These two are followed by the Second Armenian TV Channel,
"ArmNews", "ALM", "Kentron", "Yerkir Media".
Finally, in terms of the third dimension of balance, the share of
neutral references to the parties/bloc during pre-election promotion,
"Yerkir Media" TV channel (99%) surpassed even the PTA First Channel
(97.4%). The third in this ranking is "Shant" (97.3%), followed by
"ArmNews" and "Kentron" (96.3% each), Second Armenian TV Channel (96%),
"ALM" (90.6%). 9 out of 10 connotation references, recorded on the
air of "ArmNews", and 12 out of 13 on the air of Second Armenian TV
Channel were received by Republican Party of Armenia and they all
are positive. In other words, but for the particular liking these
broadcasters have to Republicans, their performance along this
dimension of balance would look much better, too.
In this regard it is important to note that ahead of elections
and during the pre- election promotion, all negative references to
parties/bloc, their representatives were made not by the TV journalists
themselves, but were contained in the opinions voiced by discussion
program/newscast participants. Meanwhile, the positive references in
some cases were made by journalists.
The data above show that the paid airtime for pre-election promotion
was only fully used by pro-governmental forces. This once again
brings forth the long- debated issue of the unduly excessive tariffs
for political advertising that do not contribute to ensuring equal
opportunities for pre-election campaigns.
At the same time, a whole number of materials were recorded during
the monitoring that can be perceived as pre-election promotion by
indirect signs, sometimes quite eloquent, that are not, however,
accompanied by an appropriate title on the TV screen. The monitoring
group is not aware of any investigation into such issues being made
by the National Commission on Television and Radio that is to control
the adherence of broadcast media with the electoral legislation.
Overall, it is necessary to note that the insufficiently distinct
definitions and omissions in the legislation, the lack of an adequate
control over its implementation remain the main factors that disallow
eliminating the traditional deficiencies in the election reporting,
along with the lack of plurality in the broadcast sphere.