The first third of the monitoring of Armenian media during the campaign for the presidential elections in Armenia has been completed. The monitoring is implemented by Yerevan Press Club under project supported by Open Society Institute. As it has been reported, 27 electronic and print media – both national and regional – are monitored (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 18-24, 2003).
No obvious violations of RA legislation on pre-election promotion in media have been registered during the first decade of the campaign. In two cases the promotional materials were not marked as political advertising, but this occurrence was due to technical problems, corrected afterwards.
At the same time a whole number of pieces pertaining to editorial coverage (not those of promotional nature) have features of advertising and anti-advertising. In the majority of the media studied, the President in office receives much more attention than other candidates. The print media are much more pluralistic and the electronic ones. It would have been too early to draw conclusions and give numerical summaries, however, the circumstances noted are a source for certain anxiety.
