Absence of debates is the key problem of coverage of the campaign by Armenian mass media

• Tuesday, February 19, 14:51

The absence of debates still remains the key problem of coverage of the campaign by Armenian mass media, the head of the Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan, told journalists today when summing up on the results of the monitoring of the presidential election's coverage by mass media.

He said that in general the broadcasting mass media did not show discrimination or an open partial attitude to candidates for president of Armenia. Equal conditions were provided to all the candidates to present their programmes. "If during the parliamentary election 2012 the balanced coverage was provided only
over the period of official campaigning, this time the pre-campaign period was also provided with such coverage", - Navasardyan said.

Incidentally, the leader of the National Self-Determination Union party, Paruyr Hayrikyan, was covered most of all because of the assassination attempt on him on 31 January. The leaders by the volume of the airtime were:  Hayrikyan, Serzh Sargsyan, Raffi Hovannisian and Hrant Bagratyan. 

The coverage of activity of the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan before the campaign was rather intensive, as he was covered not like a candidate for president, but like an official.  However, the situation radically changed when the campaign started: from 21 January to 16 February Sargsyan like a candidate for president was shown by TV 8,7%, whereas this indicator was 65,6% from 14 to 20 January. Navasardyan said that this is evidence of the fact that there is a common law, according to which an official should cut his public appearance, if it is not connected with the campaign.

Navasardyan pointed at absence of debates like a negative factor of coverage of the campaign.

The monitoring of the coverage by the broadcasting mass media was held by the Yerevan Press Club with assistance of the OSCE Yerevan office within the frames of the project financed by European Union.