On February 21, Public Television allocated 74 minutes, 27 seconds to the topic of constitutional referendum

On February 21, the Public Television of Armenia, operating at the expense of the taxpayers, allocated 74 minutes 20 seconds of its air to the topic of the constitutional referendum, 27 minutes to which was allocated to the supporters of the “NO” campaign, 4 minutes 50 seconds to the “ YES” side and 42 minutes 30 seconds covered neutral remarks. The Public TV broadcast also featured “YES” and “NO” campaign video clips of up to 1 minute duration each. Within the framework of “NO” campaign, the statement of “National Democratic Union” party was quoted (4 minutes long). The program “Interview with Petros Ghazaryan” hosted human rights activist and “NO” campaign coordinator Ruben Melikyan (21 minutes). “Media Advocate” Initiative states that during the interview, Petros Ghazaryan mainly distracted human rights activist from the main topic of the conversation, moving the discussion from the contextual field to a field not directly related to the topic.

The topic of the constitutional referendum was also discussed during the “Rules of the Game” program of public TV. The program took a total of 43 minutes and 30 seconds. The guests of the program were Chairman of the Aware and Protected Consumer NGO Babken Pipoyan, Head of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan, ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan and CEC (Central Electoral Commission) Secretary Armen Smbatyan. On February 21, the speech of the Speaker of the NA “My Step” alliance, Lilit Makunts was also covered by the Public Broadcaster (4 minutes).