From November 6 to December 4 of 2015, the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression conducted monitoring of the activity by the Armenian public TV and radio company aimed at ensuring equal conditions when providing air-time to the political parties represented in the parliament during the campaign period for the referendum on December 6 for the constitutional amendments.
The choice of the period was conditioned by the fact that in accord with the RA Law on Elections and Referendums, Armenian Public TV and Radio Company, 30 days before the voting, should allocate free and paid air-time to the factions of the political parties in the parliament for the campaign. The timetable and procedure of providing the air-time on Public TV and radio have been defined by Decree №69-A, from October 29, 2015, by the Central Commission for the Referendum.
The goal of the monitoring was: a) to study the activity of the Public TV and Radio Company in terms of providing equal conditions to the RA parliamentary factions for the campaign, b) to identify the activity level of the political parties throughout the period of the campaign.
For the monitoring purposes the Committee was doing audio and video recording of campaign speeches by the parliamentarian factions both on TV and over the radio, so that it follows the consistency of the campaign with the requirements of the law and the CCR decree, as well as to analyze how the political parties used the paid and free air-time provided by the public TV broadcaster.
