THE BROADCASTING IS BIASED
168 Zham, Armenia
Dec 11 2007
The Yerevan Press Club published yesterday [10 December] the results
of monitoring of Armenian TV channels and Public Radio of Armenia.
According to those [results], Armenia’s Public Television and Public
Radio are not impartial in their coverage of the presidential hopefuls.
"The circumstance that ‘polar’ coverage of the two candidates [Armenian
Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and former Armenian President Levon
Ter-Petrosyan], which attracted the most attention of mass media
is characteristic of the first channel (H1) of Public Television of
Armenia and Public Radio of Armenia (PR), causes special concern".
The latter, in particular, which in the previous elections (in 2003
and 2007) was mentioned as the most balanced mass media as a result
of monitoring of the broadcasts, this time is not noticed for its
impartiality. "In the November broadcasting of the Public [Radio],
82 out of 105 references about Levon Ter-Petrosyan were negative and
none were positive," the report says.
Its authors substantiate: "Such transformation has coincided in time
with rejection of its leadership to broadcast the Armenian programmes
of the Radio Liberty". "The Yerkir Media TV channel is an exception
from the described `general rule’ , where the ratio of positive and
negative references about former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan
and Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan is the most balanced one (5-13 and
4-6 correspondingly) and the neutral references make the majority in
the case of both."
"Another political figure (Serzh Sargsyan) monitored on the four TV
channels received high percentages: 76.9 per cent on the Armenia TV
(out of the total broadcasting time provided for the 19 political
figures), 48.9 per cent on the Shant TV, 47.2 per cent – on the
Public Television of Armenia and 40.8 per cent on the Armenian Second
TV channel. The number of the prime minister’s positive references
significantly prevailed over the number of negative ones on all the
TV channels except for the Yerkir Media – on Public Television of
Armenia correspondingly 26 and 2; on the ALM channel – 17 and 2;
on the Armenia TV – 11 and 0; on the Armenian Second TV channel –
26 and 1; on the Centre TV – 41 and 1; on the Shant TV – 16 and 2;
on the Public Radio of Armenia – 21 and 0.
These indicators witness that the mentioned TVs which broadcast
extremely rarely presented criticizing opinions of the president
of the ruling coalition [Armenian President Robert Kocharyan] and
comments of the political opposition and other public figures,"
the authors of the report concluded.