YPC: Media broke silence
The Yerevan Press Club (YPC) presented its report on the monitoring of Armenian broadcast media coverage of the May 5, 2013 Elections of the Yerevan Council of Elders and Post-Election Processes.
The report covers the period between May 4 and 19, including the "Day of Silence," the voting day and the post-election period.
The research included four national TV channels -Public TV, Yerkir Media, Kentron and Second Armenian TV Channel, one Yerevan TV channel - ArmNews, as well as the Public Radio of Armenia and ArmRadio FM 107 radio channel.
"Episodes directing the voter (in total 60 pieces, including their repetitions) were recorded in the airtime of all 7 media studied on May 4 and 5," YPC Chairman Boris Navasardyan told reporters on May 24.
"If we compare the monitoring of Armenian broadcast media coverage during the parliamentary, presidential and municipal elections, we can say that TV channels were more vigilant in the presidential election. The picture differed during the parliamentary and municipal elections, with more instances of violations reported at that period," he said.
Speaking about the violations registered on the "Day of Silence" Mr Navasardyan said, "In their addresses political forces gave pledges. Secondly, there were footages in which representatives of political forces appealed to citizens to vote for their party. The slogans of political parties repeated in some cases."
The monitoring was conducted in three stages: the first stage covered the period from April 7 to May 3, 2013 (pre-election promotion); the second stage covered the period from May 4 to May 5, 2013 till 20.00 (the days, when pre-election promotion is prohibited by the electoral legislation); the third stage covered the period of May 5 from 20.00 to May 19, 2013 (coverage of the post-election situation).
You can read the full report here
