The Public Television of Armenia, operating at the expense of taxpayers, since the official start of the campaign up to and including February 24 has allocated 59 minutes of its air to the “YES”campaign of the Constitutional Referendum, 46 minutes to the “NO” side; 90 minutes were neutral remarks.
During the monitoring period, the Public TV adopted biased approaches. On February 21, during an interview with human rights activist, representative of the “NO” campaign headquarters Ruben Melikyan, Petros Ghazaryan drifted the topic from the main issue, referring to points having no direct relation to the discussed content, that is preventing Melikyan from preaching “NO” in the same terms as “YES” was being preached on February 20 by the Prime Minister Pashinyan.
On February 22, in a video on the involvement of members in the Referendum Precinct Commissions on behalf of the “NO” campaign, the Public Television referred only to the request sent to the 4 parties without referring to the February 21 public announcement on the acceptance of relevant applications by individual citizens.
“Media Advocate” urges Public Television to maintain professional impartiality and objectivity during the campaign.
“Media Advocate” Initiative
