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Azg, Armenia
Feb 7 2008
Only Public [TV] andKentron [TV] are biased
by Ruzan Poghosyan
The Yerevan Press Club has renewed pre-election monitoring of the
media from 21 January with support of the TIMresearch centre and Open
Society Institute. The monitoring was carried out in eight
broadcasting media outlets - H1[Public TV], H2 [Second TV Channel],
ALM, Armenia TV, Yerkir Media, Kentron, Shant TV and Public Radio of
Armenia.
The chairman of the Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan, yesterday
[6 February] in the Urbat discussion clubpresented the results of the
monitoring carried out between 21-30 January. First, he noted at this
stage thebroadcasters have been demonstrating that they start paying
more attention to giving equal air time to coverage ofpresidential
candidates' campaigns as against the previous monitoring period in
October-December 2007. The leaderof the National Solidarity Party,
Aram Harutyunyan, was paid the least attention - 12,720 seconds, and
the name of PrimeMinister Serzh Sargsyan was mentioned more than all
- 29,442 seconds.
There was regular reporting about candidates during the first ten
days of the campaign - a total of 425 reports aboutSerzh Sargsyan,
and fewer reports about [former aide to the president of the
unrecognized Nagornyy Karabakh republic]Arman Melikyan - 133. On the
other hand, the monitoring showed that if coverage of Sargsyan's
official activitieswas given separately from coverage of his election
campaign, then he will yield his leading position to the
presidentialcandidate from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, Vahan Hovhannesyan, and will have an
insignificant advantage over [leader of the People's Party] Tigran
Karapetyan.
As one may suppose, H1 and H2 were in the lead in covering Serzh
Sargsyan's campaign, while Vahan Hovhannesyanwas in the lead on
Yerkir Media, Armenia TV and Shant TV. Kentron TV was the one to
provide the longest airtime forcoverage of [first Armenian president
Levon] Ter-Petrosyan, of course criticism was aired. It is clear that
ALM ownerTigran Karapetyan should have found himself in glorious
conditions - coverage of his activities exceeded by 1.5 timesthat of
his opponents.
Apart from unequal distribution of air time, experts have noted that
reports about Serzh Sargsyan are exclusivelypositive, whereas those
about Ter-Petrosyan - exclusively negative. Out of 99 reports about
the prime minister onlythree were negative, and nothing positive was
said about Ter-Petrosyan - all 72 reports were negative. A biased
attitudewas shown on Public TV and the programme "What Newspapers
Write" on Kentron TV. Incidentally, negative remarkson Ter-Petrosyan
were made mainly by political figures, in particular the leader of
the National Unity Party [andpresidential candidate] Artashes
Geghamyan.
Public Radio and H2 were noted for more or less balanced coverage
within the last 10 days presenting seven out ofnine presidential
candidates from exclusively neutral positions. Armenia and Shant TV
are not lagging behind them.
Summarizing the results of this stage of the monitoring, experts of
the Yerevan Press Club note that the Armenianbroadcasting media are
entirely capable of covering the election campaign in line with
international standards.
[translated]
Feb 7 2008
Only Public [TV] andKentron [TV] are biased
by Ruzan Poghosyan
The Yerevan Press Club has renewed pre-election monitoring of the
media from 21 January with support of the TIMresearch centre and Open
Society Institute. The monitoring was carried out in eight
broadcasting media outlets - H1[Public TV], H2 [Second TV Channel],
ALM, Armenia TV, Yerkir Media, Kentron, Shant TV and Public Radio of
Armenia.
The chairman of the Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan, yesterday
[6 February] in the Urbat discussion clubpresented the results of the
monitoring carried out between 21-30 January. First, he noted at this
stage thebroadcasters have been demonstrating that they start paying
more attention to giving equal air time to coverage ofpresidential
candidates' campaigns as against the previous monitoring period in
October-December 2007. The leaderof the National Solidarity Party,
Aram Harutyunyan, was paid the least attention - 12,720 seconds, and
the name of PrimeMinister Serzh Sargsyan was mentioned more than all
- 29,442 seconds.
There was regular reporting about candidates during the first ten
days of the campaign - a total of 425 reports aboutSerzh Sargsyan,
and fewer reports about [former aide to the president of the
unrecognized Nagornyy Karabakh republic]Arman Melikyan - 133. On the
other hand, the monitoring showed that if coverage of Sargsyan's
official activitieswas given separately from coverage of his election
campaign, then he will yield his leading position to the
presidentialcandidate from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, Vahan Hovhannesyan, and will have an
insignificant advantage over [leader of the People's Party] Tigran
Karapetyan.
As one may suppose, H1 and H2 were in the lead in covering Serzh
Sargsyan's campaign, while Vahan Hovhannesyanwas in the lead on
Yerkir Media, Armenia TV and Shant TV. Kentron TV was the one to
provide the longest airtime forcoverage of [first Armenian president
Levon] Ter-Petrosyan, of course criticism was aired. It is clear that
ALM ownerTigran Karapetyan should have found himself in glorious
conditions - coverage of his activities exceeded by 1.5 timesthat of
his opponents.
Apart from unequal distribution of air time, experts have noted that
reports about Serzh Sargsyan are exclusivelypositive, whereas those
about Ter-Petrosyan - exclusively negative. Out of 99 reports about
the prime minister onlythree were negative, and nothing positive was
said about Ter-Petrosyan - all 72 reports were negative. A biased
attitudewas shown on Public TV and the programme "What Newspapers
Write" on Kentron TV. Incidentally, negative remarkson Ter-Petrosyan
were made mainly by political figures, in particular the leader of
the National Unity Party [andpresidential candidate] Artashes
Geghamyan.
Public Radio and H2 were noted for more or less balanced coverage
within the last 10 days presenting seven out ofnine presidential
candidates from exclusively neutral positions. Armenia and Shant TV
are not lagging behind them.
Summarizing the results of this stage of the monitoring, experts of
the Yerevan Press Club note that the Armenianbroadcasting media are
entirely capable of covering the election campaign in line with
international standards.
[translated]