EUROPAISCHES MEDIENINSTITUT e.V. THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOR THE MEDIA INSTITUT EUROPEEN DE LA COMMUNICATION European Institute for the Media Tel: +49-211-90104-58 Kaistrasse 13 Fax: +49-211-90104-56 D-40221 Dusseldorf Email: gmcc@eim.de Germany Tel. in Yerevan: 58 75 36 31st of May 1999

Preliminary Report on Monitoring of the Media Coverage
of the Armenian Parliamentary Elections
in May 1999

Print Media

The situation for the print media is highly problematic, given low circulations of a few thousand on average, the high cost of paper, a small advertising market and the low buying capacity of the population. Nevertheless, a variety of print media continue to publish on a regular basis, although they serve on average a very small percentage of the population.

Monitoring of newspapers during the election campaign indicated that a varied source of information was available, despite the high politicisation of many newspapers. Thirteen of the parties participating in the elections owned their own newspaper, three others used to run newspapers but ceased because of low funding and one (the Youth Party) expressed the desire to set up their own newspaper after the elections. Five of the twelve newspapers monitored were directly affiliated to political parties during the elections. As a rule, these newspapers tended to support their own party and criticise others. Balanced informative coverage was hard to find, although the level of bias varied from newspaper to newspaper. The independent newspapers, Aravot and Golos Armenii, for example, were highly critical of the elections and political parties but from very different perspectives. Golos Armenii was particularly critical towards the Armenian National Movement, whereas Aravot was critical of all the parties with the exception of the Armenian National Movement. The levels of criticism reflected the attitude of the editors of those newspapers, who when interviewed by EIM monitors, gave negative appraisals of the campaign period. Aram Abrahamyan, editor of Aravot and well-known television presenter stated: "None of the parties participating in these elections are worthy of presiding over a parliament at the end of the 20^th century."

Preliminary monitoring results indicated that the most mentioned parties and blocs in the press were the Armenian National Movement, the Unity bloc, Rights and Unity, Dashnaktsutyun, Ramkavar, the Communist Party and Fatherland. Those political parties which were dissatisfied with media coverage expressed it most often in relation to the print media, with common complaints about the inaccuracy of information published and the lack of a right to reply.

State newspapers were obliged to print all the decisions made by the Central Election Commission and also provide each party with half a page of space free of charge. The increased demand for space and the short notice provided by parties caused problems for the state press in complying with its legal obligations. The editor of Respublika Armenia, Shamiram Agabekyan, told EIM monitors that the CEC was not fully compensating the paper for the increased expenditure incurred by the paper during the campaign.