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YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
MAY 4-10, 2012
HIGHLIGHTS:
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB REPORT ON MONITORING OF ARMENIAN BROADCAST MEDIA COVERAGE
OF MAY 6, 2012 ELECTIONS TO RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS' STATEMENT ON PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
ON ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
INCIDENTS WITH JOURNALISTS ON THE VOTING DAY
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB REPORT ON MONITORING OF ARMENIAN BROADCAST MEDIA COVERAGE
OF MAY 6, 2012 ELECTIONS TO RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
On May 7 at Urbat Club Yerevan Press Club presented the Report on Monitoring
of Armenian Broadcast Media Coverage of May 6, 2012 Elections to RA National
Assembly. Assistance to the YPC research was provided by OSCE Office in
Yerevan within the framework of the project "Support to Two Electoral Cycles
in Armenia", financed by the European Union. The monitoring was conducted
within two stages: the first stage covered the period of March 1-31, 2012
(ahead of pre-election promotion); the second stage covered the period of
April 8 - May 4, 2012 (pre-election promotion).
Current report sums up the outcomes of monitoring the period of pre-election
promotion (8 April - May 4, 2012), as well as the previous months, November
16 to December 15, 2011 (during this period YPC conducted monitoring upon
its own initiative and at the expense of its own resources), and March 1-31,
2012.
THE MONITORING included 7 national TV channels - First Channel of the Public
Television of Armenia (h1), "Shoghakat" (which is also a part of Public TV
and Radio Company), "Armenia", "Yerkir Media", "Kentron", Second Armenian TV
Channel (h2), "Shant"; 1 Yerevan TV channel - "ArmNews" (the only
broadcaster in Armenia that has a specific license of a news channel); as
well as Public Radio of Armenia. During the pre-election promotion, the
study included all programs aired at 18.00-01.00 on the above-mentioned TV
and radio channels, with the exception of political (i.e. pre-election
promotion materials), commercial and social advertisement. During other
stages of the monitoring, main editions of news programs and main current
affairs/discussion programs broadcast during the same time interval were
studied.
Object of monitoring consisted of TV/radio pieces that included references
to: during the pre-election promotion - to 8 parties and 1 party bloc,
registered by the RA Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for participation in
the parliamentary elections by proportional electoral system; during the
previous stages - to the political forces which either had expressed their
intention to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, or held an
active position in the political life of the country. The airtime, allocated
to the parties/bloc, frequency and connotations of references to them by the
monitored media were recorded. (See the monitoring methodology during the
pre-election promotion in YPC Report, Chapter "General Information on
Monitoring", at http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.)
THE CHOICE OF VARIOUS TIME PERIODS was conditioned by the fact that in
Armenia traditionally the non-official election campaign starts much earlier
than the month before the elections, which is allocated for pre-election
promotion. And within various periods the behavior of the media, especially
the ones with the most massive audience, i.e. TV channels, to a large extent
determines the attitudes of the electorate. Such studies allow to define the
role of Armenian TV and radio broadcasters in political processes, as well
as the problems that exist in the field of broadcast media regulation. (See
the detailed analysis of the coverage of the electoral campaign preceding
the period of official pre-election promotion at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.)
IN GENERAL, DURING THE PERIOD OF PRE-ELECTION PROMOTION, the studied
broadcasters offered various equal conditions to political forces for
introducing their programs and views to the electorate. Naturally, the
voters did not receive equal amount of information about all election
participants, however this was a result of the capacity and willingness of
the political forces to conduct an election campaign. In that respect,
Armenian broadcasters demonstrated indisputable progress compared to
previous national elections. At the same time, quantitative data of the
monitoring suggests that certain channels, especially during the last days
of pre-election promotion, were not making the necessary effort for
complying with the principle of balanced coverage of the election campaign.
While the studied broadcasters made a step forward, compared with the
previous national elections, as well as with the months, preceding the
four-week period of pre-election promotion, it is impossible to say that
similar progress took place with regard to politicians. The latter ones, as
it has been done before, did not always inform the media about their
pre-election campaign events, sometimes refrained from taking part in
political debates and other discussion programs. Certain confusion remained
with regard to events that directly represent a part of the electoral
campaign, and those ones, in which the leaders of political forces appeared
not as party leaders, but in their official capacity - as high rank
statesmen. This, without doubt, created certain obstacles for the voters to
make an informed and conscious choice.
SEVERAL PROBLEMS IN ELECTIONS COVERAGE are directly connected to legislation
shortcomings. During the period, preceding the pre-election promotion,
certain materials, devoted to charity actions, initiatives related to social
issues and pre-election meetings of the parties "Prosperous Armenia" and
less frequently "Orinats Yerkir" contained indirect attributes of political
advertisement. The same or almost the same reports (both in terms of images
and texts) were aired on more than one channels, mostly on "Kentron" and
Second Armenian TV Channel, and in certain cases on "Yerkir Media",
"Armenia" and "Shant". These attributes allow to suggest that the
above-mentioned reports did not represent editorial coverage of events, but
hidden political promotion, which was carried out contrary to RA
legislation. And even if the performance of the media during the period of
the official pre-election promotion would have been ideal, this would not
always be enough for compensating the imbalance, which had been formed
during the previous periods. This circumstance is forcing to once again
raise the issues of deliberate unequal opportunities for political parties
and the necessity of clear normative-legal regulation and monitoring not
only for the short period of pre-election promotion, but also for the period
preceding it.
Particularly, the "video-press-release" pieces, which are provided by
parties to various broadcasters, in the opinion of YPC monitoring group,
should be interpreted as political advertisement, in case they are not going
through proper editorial processing. Broadcasting these pieces in their
initial versions cannot be presented as coverage on the part of the media,
since the audience has the right to know, whether it is receiving a
journalistic piece or a direct message from the politicians.
Clear understanding of the limitations in the work of the media during the
elections was also hindered by discrepancies in the legal provisions
regarding coverage of sociological polls. On the one hand, the prohibition
of covering pre-election sociological polls during the last seven days
before voting was removed from the RA Electoral Code in the run-up to
parliamentary elections of 2012; but on the other hand, fines for such
coverage are still envisaged by the RA Code on Administrative Offences.
Hence, certain media, including broadcast media, continued to cover
sociological polls during the last week before May 6.
An unacceptable system of licensing and regulation of broadcast media in
Armenia (see Expert Analysis of the Broadcast Licensing Competition Results
of December 2010 [in Armenian and English] at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng), has led to an unacceptable level
of the dependence of TV companies from political circles, first of all
pro-government forces. This conditioned imbalanced coverage of all previous
election campaigns, as well as, during the period preceding the official
pre-election promotion, of the current parliamentary elections. There are
serious reasons to believe that the significant progress, which has been
recorded during the period of pre-election promotion, was not a result of
the changing media landscape of Armenia, but rather a consequence of a
decision taken on the highest political level to provide equal opportunities
for access to TV air to the parties participating in the elections. But even
in these conditions, the political partisanship of the TV channels was felt
to a certain extent. Thus, before the pre-election promotion period, on the
whole, on the air of the studied broadcasters the tendency of providing
positive coverage of the ruling coalition parties (Republican Party of
Armenia, "Orinats Yerkir" and "Prosperous Armenia") and negative coverage of
the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) was observed. As for the
pre-election promotion period per se, in spite of a relatively balanced
coverage on the majority of broadcasters, "Kentron" and "Yerkir Media"
channels displayed a pronounced negative attitude to Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA), and a pronounced positive attitude to "Prosperous Armenia"
and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, respectively. It is worth noting that such coverage
of "Prosperous Armenia" was characteristic for "Kentron" also before the
pre-election promotion period.
One more traditional problem that still remains urgent, which demands if not
legal, but at least informal regulation, is the coverage of the party
leaders' activities not connected to the election campaign. In the course of
the current parliamentary elections, this issue concerned mostly the
Republican Party, in whose party list the first and third positions are held
by the RA President Serzh Sargsyan and RA Prime-Minister Tigran Sargsyan. On
various channels the coverage of their non-party activities during the
pre-election promotion period made on average 25% of total airtime allocated
to RPA. It means that on average they were receiving about 3 minutes of the
evening airtime on each channel. This volume could have been considered
acceptable, if these activities represented public events that could not
have been delayed. However, not all public events with the participation of
the two leaders of the country can be considered mandatory during the period
of an election campaign, in which they are also taking part as candidates.
While participation in internal and international events, with dates that
are fixed independently of their will, such as the celebration of the Holly
Easter, government meetings, etc., is quite legitimate, visits to various
companies, institutions, ceremonies, etc. do not always appear as something
which could not have been planned for a period outside of the election
campaign. Especially, since there exists an unwritten rule: to ensure
outmost equal conditions for holding pre-election promotion, leaders of the
state, who take part in the election campaign, should reduce their public
appearances, which are unconnected to the campaign, rather than increase
their frequency.
Of course, the broadcasters traditionally cover each public event with the
participation of the President and Prime-Minister, and, as a matter of fact,
the advantage of the RPA before its competitors in terms of airtime and
references frequency has been formed mostly at the expense of these
activities in the capacity of state officials. First of all, this refers to
Public Radio and "Shant" TV channel, where coverage of the events with
participation of the RA President and RA Prime-Minister, not directly
connected with the elections, comprised 41.7% of the total airtime allocated
to RPA by each of these channels, and thus can be characterized as
excessive.
In terms of coverage of non-party activities of the leaders of political
forces, "Kentron" distinguished itself with its attitude to Gagik Tsarukyan,
the first number of the electoral list of "Prosperous Armenia" and the
President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia. During the period of
pre-election promotion, only his activities in the capacity of the Head of
the NOC received almost as much of attention on the evening airtime of
"Kentron", as it was allocated to the "United Armenians" party in general on
this channel.
THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF INTEREST to political forces, taking part in the
elections, during the period of pre-election promotion was displayed by
"ArmNews" TV channel (hereafter see the quantitative results of the
monitoring from April 8 to May 4, 2012 at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng). On May 3, 2012 "ArmNews"
established "an absolute record" of the current election campaign in terms
of frequency and volume of coverage of political forces: 295 references to
parties/bloc and 9,424 seconds, allocated to them in the evening airtime.
The second and third in terms of volume of coverage were "Kentron" and
"Yerkir Media", with a significant gap, as compared to the leader. And while
these two TV channels had been active on all stages of the monitoring,
"ArmNews" was gradually becoming the leader in terms of frequency and volume
of coverage of the electoral process, increasing its attention to it step by
step. Its passivity before the period of pre-election promotion was
difficult to explain, especially taking into account that it is the only
broadcaster in Armenia that has a specific license of a news channel.
Less than other studied channels the internal political situation during the
period of pre-election promotion was covered by PTA First Channel, "Armenia"
and "Shant". The above-mentioned "record" of "ArmNews" was equal to
four-five days standard coverage of the pre-election situation by these
channels. On the previous stages of the monitoring the same broadcasters
displayed the lowest degree of activity. First of all, this refers to
"Shant", which, having the same type of license, as for example "Kentron"
(i.e. TV channel of general profile), allocated almost five times less
airtime to pre-election processes during the period of March 1-31, 2012.
However, if on the previous stages the lack of attention to electoral
process could have influenced the degree of awareness of the audience,
beginning from April 8 the potential voters were receiving the necessary
minimum of news and opinions. In the news editions of 8 out of 9 studied
broadcasters, reports about pre-election rallies and other events of all 9
parties/bloc were aired, politicians were frequent guests in discussion
programs. Besides, the broadcasters aired paid pre-election promotion slots
(while on PTA First Channel and Public Radio also free pre-election
promotion slots).
One of the 9 studied broadcasters, "Shoghakat", as during the previous
stages of the monitoring, remained loyal to its profile - a TV channel of
spiritual and cultural orientation. There were only 23 references to
political parties/bloc within its programs included in the monitoring. 18 of
these and 124 seconds of airtime were devoted to RPA, and in all these cases
it was coverage of the activities of the RA President and RA Prime-Minister,
unrelated to the election campaign. Accordingly, the analysis and
comparisons made within the current report do not refer to this broadcaster.
MOST EQUALLY THE ATTENTION to political forces was distributed on "ArmNews"
and Public Radio. The largest divergence in terms of airtime, allocated to
parties/bloc, was recorded on "Kentron", where "Prosperous Armenia" party,
as on previous stages of the monitoring, had overwhelming advantage over
competitors in terms of coverage volume. In terms of references frequency
the largest divergence was recorded on "Shant".
According to cumulative indicators of all studied broadcasters, RPA was the
leader both in terms of references frequency and airtime allocation.
According to the first indicator this party was also ahead of all others on
every channel, and according to volume of coverage - on 5 out of 8 studied
channels. As it was mentioned, in terms of this indicator on "Kentron"
"Prosperous Armenia" was beyond competition, on "Yerkir Media"
ARF-Dashnaktsutyun was the first, and on "Armenia" ANC was ahead of
everyone. According to cumulative data of all studied channels "Prosperous
Armenia" and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun together with RPA were the three leading
parties in terms of both indicators of the attention level - frequency of
references and airtime allocation. The advantage of "Prosperous Armenia" and
ARF-Dashnaktsutyun as compared to ANC, which was fourth, had been formed at
the expense of the special attention they were receiving from "Kentron" and
"Yerkir Media", accordingly. Other political forces of the "big six" (beside
the already mentioned four, also "Orinats Yerkir" and "Heritage") were
covered quite intensively, both during the period of pre-election promotion
and before it. Democratic Party of Armenia and Communist Party of Armenia
led their campaigns more passively, which, according to monitoring results,
also influenced their indicators. A special case were "United Armenians".
Coverage of this party was not a subject of the initial stages of
monitoring, since previously the party had not demonstrated any public
activity and before mid-March 2012 had not voiced its intention to take part
in the parliamentary elections by a proportional system. This circumstance,
as well as the relatively passive conduct of the election campaign had its
impact on the media attention toward this party.
THE SHARE OF CONNOTATION REFERENCES to political forces in the period of
pre-election promotion comprised 3.5% of the aggregate number of references
on all studied channels. In spite of fact that the criticism and praise
towards the parties, both from the parties themselves and society at large,
was becoming more common as the voting day was getting closer, during the
period of pre-election promotion this indicator decreased as compared to
November-December 2011 (9.6%) and March 2012 (3.8%). This is a sign of
predominance of neutral coverage on the part of TV and radio journalists.
The highest share of connotation references was recorded on "Kentron" (7.1%
of the total number of references on that channel). The lowest share was
recorded on "ArmNews" (1.4%) and Public Radio (1.5%). Between them were
"Shant" (2.4%), PTA First Channel (3.4%), Second Armenian TV Channel (4.3%),
"Armenia" (5.5%) and "Yerkir Media" (6%).
At the same time, during the period of pre-election promotion "polarized"
attitude to certain political forces was recorded on a number of
broadcasters. On "Kentron" "Prosperous Armenia" received 65 positive and no
negative references, while RPA received no positive and 20 negative
references. On "Yerkir-Media" ARF-Dashnaktsutyun received 29 positive and no
negative references, "Prosperous Armenia" - 23 positive and 5 negative
references, while RPA received no positive and 17 negative references. In
terms of "polarization" these channels are followed by "ArmNews" with a
large gap: 12 positive versus 5 negative references in case of RPA and no
positive versus 12 negative references in case of ANC. It was at the expense
of "Kentron" and "Yerkir Media" that "Prosperous Armenia" and
ARF-Dashanktsutyun have the most favorable aggregate balance (on all
studied channels) of positive and negative references: 102-26 ("Prosperous
Armenia") and 31-1 (ARF-Dashanktsutyun), while RPA, unlike the previous
stages of the monitoring, has a negative balance - 43-64. It is also
necessary to note that the 22 negative references that received RPA,
"Prosperous Armenia" and "Orinats Yerkir", each, were addressed to the
whole ruling coalition. Of all parties/bloc, participating in the elections,
ANC has the least favorable balance (1-23), mostly at the expense of
"ArmNews" (0-12) and "Armenia" (0-7). At the same time, it is difficult to
name a broadcaster, which would have a relatively equal distribution of
connotation references between parties/bloc.
As one of the causes of the "polarized" coverage one can mention the
increase in mutual criticism between political forces and predominance of
opinions and evaluations voiced by representatives of specific parties/bloc,
during the period of pre-election promotion. Particularly, negative balance
of connotation references to RPA, ANC and "Orinats Yerkir" to some extent is
conditioned by their certain refusals to take part in discussion programs.
As a consequence, on the air of a number of channels the opinions expressed
about them by political opponents were prevailing. Another cause is the
existence of various approaches of broadcasters to coverage of pre-election
events. In the case of some parties the journalists were taking
blitz-interviews with participants of these events, thus giving the whole
story a positive character, in other case such interviews were not
practiced. In some cases the stories were characterized by upbeat mood and
enthusiastic rhetoric (often coming from the authors of the pieces), in
other cases a neutral attitude was maintained, and in some cases one could
detect a hint of irony. And though this did not always represent a
sufficient basis for recording connotation references, the absence of a
common approach of broadcasters to the coverage of pre-election campaign
events of all political forces led to a certain lack of balance.
AS A SEPARATE COMPONENT OF THE MONITORING the participants of all the
evening programs of "guest-in-the-studio" format on the studied channels
were recorded. During the period preceding the pre-election promotion, the
choice of guests signified a quite limited interest of the majority of the
broadcasters towards internal political struggle in the run-up to the
elections. Probably, the only exception was "Yerkir Media", where in
discussion programs politicians representing various political forces
regularly appeared. This format was used in a very limited way by PTA First
Channel: in March 2012 representatives of political parties became its
guests only 4 times. Instead, representatives of arts and culture were often
invited. Such an approach can hardly be considered justified, given the fact
that the country was facing elections, that First Channel has a general
profile, and that there is a specialized spiritual and cultural channel,
"Shoghakat", in the system of Public TV and Radio Company.
During the period of pre-election promotion the interest to representatives
of political forces rose on all channels studied, which was reflected also
in the programs of "guest-in-the-studio" format. The only exception was
Public Radio, which did not have programs, presuming participation of
politicians as guests. The widest reach of political forces was provided by
PTA First Channel, "Yerkir Media" and Second Armenian TV Channel, whose
guests were representatives of all 9 parties/bloc participating in the
elections. Only in programs of these channels representatives of the "United
Armenians" party were invited. The lowest number of representatives of
political forces, six, became guests on "Shant".
MONITORING OUTCOMES suggest that, in spite of in general diligent work of
the broadcasters during the period of pre-election campaign, there remains a
lot of potential for more professional coverage of the election campaign.
There is also need for improvement of the RA legislation, regulating the
coverage of the elections. And, most importantly, the readiness of political
forces to use the opportunities provided by the media for waging a
meaningful election campaign remains on a low level.
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB would like to thank management and staff of broadcast
media, who cooperated in an engaged and efficient way with the YPC
monitoring group in the course of this study.
The full YPC Report on Monitoring of Armenian Broadcast Media Coverage of
May 6, 2012 Elections to RA National Assembly, as well as reports for
previous stages of monitoring are available at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND EDUCATION
On May 8 another program of "E-Club" weekly cycle went on the online
broadcast of "A1+" TV company (www.a1plus.am). The "E-Club" is produced by
Yerevan Press Club in cooperation with "A1+" TV under "Alternative Resources
in Media" project, supported by USAID.
The program was devoted to educational online resources. Particularly,
"E-Club" presented the University of People (http://www.uopeople.org/),
world's first tuition-free online university, established 3 years ago;
practical tips by British Council for learning English; Hyperscore music
program of "Luys" educational foundation and www.ufar.am, website of French
University in Armenia. The news bloc of "E-Club" informed about the decrease
of Internet speed worldwide, about the results of the Best of Blogs
competition (http://www.bestoftheblogs.com), and the attack by Turkish
cyberactivist group RedHack on the websites of companies, which provide milk
that had poisoned children at schools. The ratings of online sources and
headlines of last week were presented by Harutiun Mansurian, producer of
Internews Media Support NGO. The web sources' top list was headed by Google,
while the most popular topic was the explosion of balloons at the Republic
Square in Yerevan on May 4, 2012.
The next "E-Club" will be aired on "A1+" on Tuesday, May 15 at 15.50 (rerun
- on Thursday, May 17 at 18.20).
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS' STATEMENT ON PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
ON ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
On May 7 the international observers, involving the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
and the European Parliament released the statement of preliminary findings
and conclusions on RA National Assembly elections. The international
observers characterized the 6 May 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia as
"a competitive, vibrant and largely peaceful campaign". At the same time,
the international observers were concerned with "an unequal playing field
due to violations of campaign provisions and cases of pressure on voters, as
well as deficiencies in the complaints and appeals process".
One of the sections of the statement deals with the media activities. It
particularly states: "Despite limited content diversity, during the official
campaign period, which started on 8 April, broadcasters guaranteed access to
all major political parties, thus enabling voters to be informed of their
political positions. This appears to be an improvement over the period prior
to the official campaign." Based on the results of monitoring, conducted by
OSCE/ODHIR Election Observation Mission and covering 6 national media (First
Channel of the Public Television of Armenia, Second Armenian TV Channel,
"Armenia", "Shant", "Yerkir Media", "Kentron"), two radio stations (Public
Radio of Armenia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) and one official
newspaper ("Hayastani Hanrapetutiun"), the international observers
emphasize: "In several cases TV channels, instead of relying on their own
material, broadcast in their news the same campaign material which was also
used in paid political advertisement. Such practices damage the credibility
of media reporting and undermine the autonomy of the media from the
political sphere, and may have been misleading for viewers."
See the full statement of international observers on May 6, 2012 RA National
Assembly elections at http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/90332 (in English)
and http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/90333 (in Armenian).
INCIDENTS WITH JOURNALISTS ON THE VOTING DAY
On the ballot day of RA National Assembly elections, May 6, at about 11.00
at 12/33 precinct of Erebuni electoral district of Yerevan a young man
impeded the professional duties of Elina Chilingarian, correspondent of
Armenian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. As Elina Chilingarian
informed YPC, she was shooting the crowds gathered at the precinct, when a
man approached her, hit her hand and tried to take the videocamera. The
journalist addressed to Erebuni Police of Yerevan. According to Elina
Chilingarian, on May 8 the Erebuni Police informed her that it has
identified the attacker and criminal proceedings are instituted on charges
of Article 164 of RA Criminal Code ("Impeding the legitimate professional
activities of a journalist").
As www.aravot.am, news portal of "Aravot" daily reports, on May 6, at about
10.00 at 5/11 precinct of Davidashen electoral district of Yerevan a young
man obstructed Nelly Babayan, correspondent of "Aravot", while she was
taking photos with her cell phone. The incident was settled when after a
while the mobile was returned to the journalist.
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.ypc.am
From: Baghdasarian
MAY 4-10, 2012
HIGHLIGHTS:
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB REPORT ON MONITORING OF ARMENIAN BROADCAST MEDIA COVERAGE
OF MAY 6, 2012 ELECTIONS TO RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS' STATEMENT ON PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
ON ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
INCIDENTS WITH JOURNALISTS ON THE VOTING DAY
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB REPORT ON MONITORING OF ARMENIAN BROADCAST MEDIA COVERAGE
OF MAY 6, 2012 ELECTIONS TO RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
On May 7 at Urbat Club Yerevan Press Club presented the Report on Monitoring
of Armenian Broadcast Media Coverage of May 6, 2012 Elections to RA National
Assembly. Assistance to the YPC research was provided by OSCE Office in
Yerevan within the framework of the project "Support to Two Electoral Cycles
in Armenia", financed by the European Union. The monitoring was conducted
within two stages: the first stage covered the period of March 1-31, 2012
(ahead of pre-election promotion); the second stage covered the period of
April 8 - May 4, 2012 (pre-election promotion).
Current report sums up the outcomes of monitoring the period of pre-election
promotion (8 April - May 4, 2012), as well as the previous months, November
16 to December 15, 2011 (during this period YPC conducted monitoring upon
its own initiative and at the expense of its own resources), and March 1-31,
2012.
THE MONITORING included 7 national TV channels - First Channel of the Public
Television of Armenia (h1), "Shoghakat" (which is also a part of Public TV
and Radio Company), "Armenia", "Yerkir Media", "Kentron", Second Armenian TV
Channel (h2), "Shant"; 1 Yerevan TV channel - "ArmNews" (the only
broadcaster in Armenia that has a specific license of a news channel); as
well as Public Radio of Armenia. During the pre-election promotion, the
study included all programs aired at 18.00-01.00 on the above-mentioned TV
and radio channels, with the exception of political (i.e. pre-election
promotion materials), commercial and social advertisement. During other
stages of the monitoring, main editions of news programs and main current
affairs/discussion programs broadcast during the same time interval were
studied.
Object of monitoring consisted of TV/radio pieces that included references
to: during the pre-election promotion - to 8 parties and 1 party bloc,
registered by the RA Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for participation in
the parliamentary elections by proportional electoral system; during the
previous stages - to the political forces which either had expressed their
intention to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, or held an
active position in the political life of the country. The airtime, allocated
to the parties/bloc, frequency and connotations of references to them by the
monitored media were recorded. (See the monitoring methodology during the
pre-election promotion in YPC Report, Chapter "General Information on
Monitoring", at http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.)
THE CHOICE OF VARIOUS TIME PERIODS was conditioned by the fact that in
Armenia traditionally the non-official election campaign starts much earlier
than the month before the elections, which is allocated for pre-election
promotion. And within various periods the behavior of the media, especially
the ones with the most massive audience, i.e. TV channels, to a large extent
determines the attitudes of the electorate. Such studies allow to define the
role of Armenian TV and radio broadcasters in political processes, as well
as the problems that exist in the field of broadcast media regulation. (See
the detailed analysis of the coverage of the electoral campaign preceding
the period of official pre-election promotion at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.)
IN GENERAL, DURING THE PERIOD OF PRE-ELECTION PROMOTION, the studied
broadcasters offered various equal conditions to political forces for
introducing their programs and views to the electorate. Naturally, the
voters did not receive equal amount of information about all election
participants, however this was a result of the capacity and willingness of
the political forces to conduct an election campaign. In that respect,
Armenian broadcasters demonstrated indisputable progress compared to
previous national elections. At the same time, quantitative data of the
monitoring suggests that certain channels, especially during the last days
of pre-election promotion, were not making the necessary effort for
complying with the principle of balanced coverage of the election campaign.
While the studied broadcasters made a step forward, compared with the
previous national elections, as well as with the months, preceding the
four-week period of pre-election promotion, it is impossible to say that
similar progress took place with regard to politicians. The latter ones, as
it has been done before, did not always inform the media about their
pre-election campaign events, sometimes refrained from taking part in
political debates and other discussion programs. Certain confusion remained
with regard to events that directly represent a part of the electoral
campaign, and those ones, in which the leaders of political forces appeared
not as party leaders, but in their official capacity - as high rank
statesmen. This, without doubt, created certain obstacles for the voters to
make an informed and conscious choice.
SEVERAL PROBLEMS IN ELECTIONS COVERAGE are directly connected to legislation
shortcomings. During the period, preceding the pre-election promotion,
certain materials, devoted to charity actions, initiatives related to social
issues and pre-election meetings of the parties "Prosperous Armenia" and
less frequently "Orinats Yerkir" contained indirect attributes of political
advertisement. The same or almost the same reports (both in terms of images
and texts) were aired on more than one channels, mostly on "Kentron" and
Second Armenian TV Channel, and in certain cases on "Yerkir Media",
"Armenia" and "Shant". These attributes allow to suggest that the
above-mentioned reports did not represent editorial coverage of events, but
hidden political promotion, which was carried out contrary to RA
legislation. And even if the performance of the media during the period of
the official pre-election promotion would have been ideal, this would not
always be enough for compensating the imbalance, which had been formed
during the previous periods. This circumstance is forcing to once again
raise the issues of deliberate unequal opportunities for political parties
and the necessity of clear normative-legal regulation and monitoring not
only for the short period of pre-election promotion, but also for the period
preceding it.
Particularly, the "video-press-release" pieces, which are provided by
parties to various broadcasters, in the opinion of YPC monitoring group,
should be interpreted as political advertisement, in case they are not going
through proper editorial processing. Broadcasting these pieces in their
initial versions cannot be presented as coverage on the part of the media,
since the audience has the right to know, whether it is receiving a
journalistic piece or a direct message from the politicians.
Clear understanding of the limitations in the work of the media during the
elections was also hindered by discrepancies in the legal provisions
regarding coverage of sociological polls. On the one hand, the prohibition
of covering pre-election sociological polls during the last seven days
before voting was removed from the RA Electoral Code in the run-up to
parliamentary elections of 2012; but on the other hand, fines for such
coverage are still envisaged by the RA Code on Administrative Offences.
Hence, certain media, including broadcast media, continued to cover
sociological polls during the last week before May 6.
An unacceptable system of licensing and regulation of broadcast media in
Armenia (see Expert Analysis of the Broadcast Licensing Competition Results
of December 2010 [in Armenian and English] at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng), has led to an unacceptable level
of the dependence of TV companies from political circles, first of all
pro-government forces. This conditioned imbalanced coverage of all previous
election campaigns, as well as, during the period preceding the official
pre-election promotion, of the current parliamentary elections. There are
serious reasons to believe that the significant progress, which has been
recorded during the period of pre-election promotion, was not a result of
the changing media landscape of Armenia, but rather a consequence of a
decision taken on the highest political level to provide equal opportunities
for access to TV air to the parties participating in the elections. But even
in these conditions, the political partisanship of the TV channels was felt
to a certain extent. Thus, before the pre-election promotion period, on the
whole, on the air of the studied broadcasters the tendency of providing
positive coverage of the ruling coalition parties (Republican Party of
Armenia, "Orinats Yerkir" and "Prosperous Armenia") and negative coverage of
the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) was observed. As for the
pre-election promotion period per se, in spite of a relatively balanced
coverage on the majority of broadcasters, "Kentron" and "Yerkir Media"
channels displayed a pronounced negative attitude to Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA), and a pronounced positive attitude to "Prosperous Armenia"
and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun, respectively. It is worth noting that such coverage
of "Prosperous Armenia" was characteristic for "Kentron" also before the
pre-election promotion period.
One more traditional problem that still remains urgent, which demands if not
legal, but at least informal regulation, is the coverage of the party
leaders' activities not connected to the election campaign. In the course of
the current parliamentary elections, this issue concerned mostly the
Republican Party, in whose party list the first and third positions are held
by the RA President Serzh Sargsyan and RA Prime-Minister Tigran Sargsyan. On
various channels the coverage of their non-party activities during the
pre-election promotion period made on average 25% of total airtime allocated
to RPA. It means that on average they were receiving about 3 minutes of the
evening airtime on each channel. This volume could have been considered
acceptable, if these activities represented public events that could not
have been delayed. However, not all public events with the participation of
the two leaders of the country can be considered mandatory during the period
of an election campaign, in which they are also taking part as candidates.
While participation in internal and international events, with dates that
are fixed independently of their will, such as the celebration of the Holly
Easter, government meetings, etc., is quite legitimate, visits to various
companies, institutions, ceremonies, etc. do not always appear as something
which could not have been planned for a period outside of the election
campaign. Especially, since there exists an unwritten rule: to ensure
outmost equal conditions for holding pre-election promotion, leaders of the
state, who take part in the election campaign, should reduce their public
appearances, which are unconnected to the campaign, rather than increase
their frequency.
Of course, the broadcasters traditionally cover each public event with the
participation of the President and Prime-Minister, and, as a matter of fact,
the advantage of the RPA before its competitors in terms of airtime and
references frequency has been formed mostly at the expense of these
activities in the capacity of state officials. First of all, this refers to
Public Radio and "Shant" TV channel, where coverage of the events with
participation of the RA President and RA Prime-Minister, not directly
connected with the elections, comprised 41.7% of the total airtime allocated
to RPA by each of these channels, and thus can be characterized as
excessive.
In terms of coverage of non-party activities of the leaders of political
forces, "Kentron" distinguished itself with its attitude to Gagik Tsarukyan,
the first number of the electoral list of "Prosperous Armenia" and the
President of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia. During the period of
pre-election promotion, only his activities in the capacity of the Head of
the NOC received almost as much of attention on the evening airtime of
"Kentron", as it was allocated to the "United Armenians" party in general on
this channel.
THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF INTEREST to political forces, taking part in the
elections, during the period of pre-election promotion was displayed by
"ArmNews" TV channel (hereafter see the quantitative results of the
monitoring from April 8 to May 4, 2012 at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng). On May 3, 2012 "ArmNews"
established "an absolute record" of the current election campaign in terms
of frequency and volume of coverage of political forces: 295 references to
parties/bloc and 9,424 seconds, allocated to them in the evening airtime.
The second and third in terms of volume of coverage were "Kentron" and
"Yerkir Media", with a significant gap, as compared to the leader. And while
these two TV channels had been active on all stages of the monitoring,
"ArmNews" was gradually becoming the leader in terms of frequency and volume
of coverage of the electoral process, increasing its attention to it step by
step. Its passivity before the period of pre-election promotion was
difficult to explain, especially taking into account that it is the only
broadcaster in Armenia that has a specific license of a news channel.
Less than other studied channels the internal political situation during the
period of pre-election promotion was covered by PTA First Channel, "Armenia"
and "Shant". The above-mentioned "record" of "ArmNews" was equal to
four-five days standard coverage of the pre-election situation by these
channels. On the previous stages of the monitoring the same broadcasters
displayed the lowest degree of activity. First of all, this refers to
"Shant", which, having the same type of license, as for example "Kentron"
(i.e. TV channel of general profile), allocated almost five times less
airtime to pre-election processes during the period of March 1-31, 2012.
However, if on the previous stages the lack of attention to electoral
process could have influenced the degree of awareness of the audience,
beginning from April 8 the potential voters were receiving the necessary
minimum of news and opinions. In the news editions of 8 out of 9 studied
broadcasters, reports about pre-election rallies and other events of all 9
parties/bloc were aired, politicians were frequent guests in discussion
programs. Besides, the broadcasters aired paid pre-election promotion slots
(while on PTA First Channel and Public Radio also free pre-election
promotion slots).
One of the 9 studied broadcasters, "Shoghakat", as during the previous
stages of the monitoring, remained loyal to its profile - a TV channel of
spiritual and cultural orientation. There were only 23 references to
political parties/bloc within its programs included in the monitoring. 18 of
these and 124 seconds of airtime were devoted to RPA, and in all these cases
it was coverage of the activities of the RA President and RA Prime-Minister,
unrelated to the election campaign. Accordingly, the analysis and
comparisons made within the current report do not refer to this broadcaster.
MOST EQUALLY THE ATTENTION to political forces was distributed on "ArmNews"
and Public Radio. The largest divergence in terms of airtime, allocated to
parties/bloc, was recorded on "Kentron", where "Prosperous Armenia" party,
as on previous stages of the monitoring, had overwhelming advantage over
competitors in terms of coverage volume. In terms of references frequency
the largest divergence was recorded on "Shant".
According to cumulative indicators of all studied broadcasters, RPA was the
leader both in terms of references frequency and airtime allocation.
According to the first indicator this party was also ahead of all others on
every channel, and according to volume of coverage - on 5 out of 8 studied
channels. As it was mentioned, in terms of this indicator on "Kentron"
"Prosperous Armenia" was beyond competition, on "Yerkir Media"
ARF-Dashnaktsutyun was the first, and on "Armenia" ANC was ahead of
everyone. According to cumulative data of all studied channels "Prosperous
Armenia" and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun together with RPA were the three leading
parties in terms of both indicators of the attention level - frequency of
references and airtime allocation. The advantage of "Prosperous Armenia" and
ARF-Dashnaktsutyun as compared to ANC, which was fourth, had been formed at
the expense of the special attention they were receiving from "Kentron" and
"Yerkir Media", accordingly. Other political forces of the "big six" (beside
the already mentioned four, also "Orinats Yerkir" and "Heritage") were
covered quite intensively, both during the period of pre-election promotion
and before it. Democratic Party of Armenia and Communist Party of Armenia
led their campaigns more passively, which, according to monitoring results,
also influenced their indicators. A special case were "United Armenians".
Coverage of this party was not a subject of the initial stages of
monitoring, since previously the party had not demonstrated any public
activity and before mid-March 2012 had not voiced its intention to take part
in the parliamentary elections by a proportional system. This circumstance,
as well as the relatively passive conduct of the election campaign had its
impact on the media attention toward this party.
THE SHARE OF CONNOTATION REFERENCES to political forces in the period of
pre-election promotion comprised 3.5% of the aggregate number of references
on all studied channels. In spite of fact that the criticism and praise
towards the parties, both from the parties themselves and society at large,
was becoming more common as the voting day was getting closer, during the
period of pre-election promotion this indicator decreased as compared to
November-December 2011 (9.6%) and March 2012 (3.8%). This is a sign of
predominance of neutral coverage on the part of TV and radio journalists.
The highest share of connotation references was recorded on "Kentron" (7.1%
of the total number of references on that channel). The lowest share was
recorded on "ArmNews" (1.4%) and Public Radio (1.5%). Between them were
"Shant" (2.4%), PTA First Channel (3.4%), Second Armenian TV Channel (4.3%),
"Armenia" (5.5%) and "Yerkir Media" (6%).
At the same time, during the period of pre-election promotion "polarized"
attitude to certain political forces was recorded on a number of
broadcasters. On "Kentron" "Prosperous Armenia" received 65 positive and no
negative references, while RPA received no positive and 20 negative
references. On "Yerkir-Media" ARF-Dashnaktsutyun received 29 positive and no
negative references, "Prosperous Armenia" - 23 positive and 5 negative
references, while RPA received no positive and 17 negative references. In
terms of "polarization" these channels are followed by "ArmNews" with a
large gap: 12 positive versus 5 negative references in case of RPA and no
positive versus 12 negative references in case of ANC. It was at the expense
of "Kentron" and "Yerkir Media" that "Prosperous Armenia" and
ARF-Dashanktsutyun have the most favorable aggregate balance (on all
studied channels) of positive and negative references: 102-26 ("Prosperous
Armenia") and 31-1 (ARF-Dashanktsutyun), while RPA, unlike the previous
stages of the monitoring, has a negative balance - 43-64. It is also
necessary to note that the 22 negative references that received RPA,
"Prosperous Armenia" and "Orinats Yerkir", each, were addressed to the
whole ruling coalition. Of all parties/bloc, participating in the elections,
ANC has the least favorable balance (1-23), mostly at the expense of
"ArmNews" (0-12) and "Armenia" (0-7). At the same time, it is difficult to
name a broadcaster, which would have a relatively equal distribution of
connotation references between parties/bloc.
As one of the causes of the "polarized" coverage one can mention the
increase in mutual criticism between political forces and predominance of
opinions and evaluations voiced by representatives of specific parties/bloc,
during the period of pre-election promotion. Particularly, negative balance
of connotation references to RPA, ANC and "Orinats Yerkir" to some extent is
conditioned by their certain refusals to take part in discussion programs.
As a consequence, on the air of a number of channels the opinions expressed
about them by political opponents were prevailing. Another cause is the
existence of various approaches of broadcasters to coverage of pre-election
events. In the case of some parties the journalists were taking
blitz-interviews with participants of these events, thus giving the whole
story a positive character, in other case such interviews were not
practiced. In some cases the stories were characterized by upbeat mood and
enthusiastic rhetoric (often coming from the authors of the pieces), in
other cases a neutral attitude was maintained, and in some cases one could
detect a hint of irony. And though this did not always represent a
sufficient basis for recording connotation references, the absence of a
common approach of broadcasters to the coverage of pre-election campaign
events of all political forces led to a certain lack of balance.
AS A SEPARATE COMPONENT OF THE MONITORING the participants of all the
evening programs of "guest-in-the-studio" format on the studied channels
were recorded. During the period preceding the pre-election promotion, the
choice of guests signified a quite limited interest of the majority of the
broadcasters towards internal political struggle in the run-up to the
elections. Probably, the only exception was "Yerkir Media", where in
discussion programs politicians representing various political forces
regularly appeared. This format was used in a very limited way by PTA First
Channel: in March 2012 representatives of political parties became its
guests only 4 times. Instead, representatives of arts and culture were often
invited. Such an approach can hardly be considered justified, given the fact
that the country was facing elections, that First Channel has a general
profile, and that there is a specialized spiritual and cultural channel,
"Shoghakat", in the system of Public TV and Radio Company.
During the period of pre-election promotion the interest to representatives
of political forces rose on all channels studied, which was reflected also
in the programs of "guest-in-the-studio" format. The only exception was
Public Radio, which did not have programs, presuming participation of
politicians as guests. The widest reach of political forces was provided by
PTA First Channel, "Yerkir Media" and Second Armenian TV Channel, whose
guests were representatives of all 9 parties/bloc participating in the
elections. Only in programs of these channels representatives of the "United
Armenians" party were invited. The lowest number of representatives of
political forces, six, became guests on "Shant".
MONITORING OUTCOMES suggest that, in spite of in general diligent work of
the broadcasters during the period of pre-election campaign, there remains a
lot of potential for more professional coverage of the election campaign.
There is also need for improvement of the RA legislation, regulating the
coverage of the elections. And, most importantly, the readiness of political
forces to use the opportunities provided by the media for waging a
meaningful election campaign remains on a low level.
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB would like to thank management and staff of broadcast
media, who cooperated in an engaged and efficient way with the YPC
monitoring group in the course of this study.
The full YPC Report on Monitoring of Armenian Broadcast Media Coverage of
May 6, 2012 Elections to RA National Assembly, as well as reports for
previous stages of monitoring are available at
http://www.ypc.am/media_research/ln/eng.
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND EDUCATION
On May 8 another program of "E-Club" weekly cycle went on the online
broadcast of "A1+" TV company (www.a1plus.am). The "E-Club" is produced by
Yerevan Press Club in cooperation with "A1+" TV under "Alternative Resources
in Media" project, supported by USAID.
The program was devoted to educational online resources. Particularly,
"E-Club" presented the University of People (http://www.uopeople.org/),
world's first tuition-free online university, established 3 years ago;
practical tips by British Council for learning English; Hyperscore music
program of "Luys" educational foundation and www.ufar.am, website of French
University in Armenia. The news bloc of "E-Club" informed about the decrease
of Internet speed worldwide, about the results of the Best of Blogs
competition (http://www.bestoftheblogs.com), and the attack by Turkish
cyberactivist group RedHack on the websites of companies, which provide milk
that had poisoned children at schools. The ratings of online sources and
headlines of last week were presented by Harutiun Mansurian, producer of
Internews Media Support NGO. The web sources' top list was headed by Google,
while the most popular topic was the explosion of balloons at the Republic
Square in Yerevan on May 4, 2012.
The next "E-Club" will be aired on "A1+" on Tuesday, May 15 at 15.50 (rerun
- on Thursday, May 17 at 18.20).
INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS' STATEMENT ON PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
ON ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
On May 7 the international observers, involving the OSCE/ODIHR, the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
and the European Parliament released the statement of preliminary findings
and conclusions on RA National Assembly elections. The international
observers characterized the 6 May 2012 parliamentary elections in Armenia as
"a competitive, vibrant and largely peaceful campaign". At the same time,
the international observers were concerned with "an unequal playing field
due to violations of campaign provisions and cases of pressure on voters, as
well as deficiencies in the complaints and appeals process".
One of the sections of the statement deals with the media activities. It
particularly states: "Despite limited content diversity, during the official
campaign period, which started on 8 April, broadcasters guaranteed access to
all major political parties, thus enabling voters to be informed of their
political positions. This appears to be an improvement over the period prior
to the official campaign." Based on the results of monitoring, conducted by
OSCE/ODHIR Election Observation Mission and covering 6 national media (First
Channel of the Public Television of Armenia, Second Armenian TV Channel,
"Armenia", "Shant", "Yerkir Media", "Kentron"), two radio stations (Public
Radio of Armenia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) and one official
newspaper ("Hayastani Hanrapetutiun"), the international observers
emphasize: "In several cases TV channels, instead of relying on their own
material, broadcast in their news the same campaign material which was also
used in paid political advertisement. Such practices damage the credibility
of media reporting and undermine the autonomy of the media from the
political sphere, and may have been misleading for viewers."
See the full statement of international observers on May 6, 2012 RA National
Assembly elections at http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/90332 (in English)
and http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/90333 (in Armenian).
INCIDENTS WITH JOURNALISTS ON THE VOTING DAY
On the ballot day of RA National Assembly elections, May 6, at about 11.00
at 12/33 precinct of Erebuni electoral district of Yerevan a young man
impeded the professional duties of Elina Chilingarian, correspondent of
Armenian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. As Elina Chilingarian
informed YPC, she was shooting the crowds gathered at the precinct, when a
man approached her, hit her hand and tried to take the videocamera. The
journalist addressed to Erebuni Police of Yerevan. According to Elina
Chilingarian, on May 8 the Erebuni Police informed her that it has
identified the attacker and criminal proceedings are instituted on charges
of Article 164 of RA Criminal Code ("Impeding the legitimate professional
activities of a journalist").
As www.aravot.am, news portal of "Aravot" daily reports, on May 6, at about
10.00 at 5/11 precinct of Davidashen electoral district of Yerevan a young
man obstructed Nelly Babayan, correspondent of "Aravot", while she was
taking photos with her cell phone. The incident was settled when after a
while the mobile was returned to the journalist.
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.ypc.am
From: Baghdasarian