The Yerevan Press Club continues to follow 6 television companies and two online news websites during the pre-election period.

In the second round of monitoring, between November 9-18, the political scene is most intensively covered by H1, and most rarely by Shant. The same scenario was also recorded in the previous stage of monitoring.

First Channel, Armenian Second Channel, Armenia, Kentron, Shant TV Companies, and News.am website have been focusing mostly on the Acting Prime Minister and Government.

However, the only H1 has given positive coverage, Shant TV zero, and negative coverage in all other media.

The coverage of Nikol Pashinyan and the government’s activities during this time of monitoring continues to be a separate topic, which is definitely interrelated with the coverage of political forces.

And of the political parties, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the newly formed National Progress, the Christian People’s Revival and Citizen’s Decision, have been getting the most attention,both on television and on online media.  

Only in 1in.am’s political debate programs has the RPA been covered more than the Acting Prime Minister and Government.

Frequency of coverage of the 9 parties and 2 alliances participating in the elections can be divided into three conventional groups:

1. RPA, “My Step,” Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun

2. “Bright Armenia,” “We,” “Sasna Tsrer”

3. “National Progress,” “Christian People’s Revival,” “Citizen’s Decision,” Orinats Yerkir Party

Most of the surveyed media outlets, have covered the RPA most out of all of the other political forces, except for Yerkir Media and Kentron, where the ARF and PAP were discussed most consecutively.

“Moreover, the smallest difference to the attention of political forces has been recorded on Armenia’s airspace, the biggest difference have been recorded in News.am and Kentron TV,” said Boris Navasardyan, President of the Press Club.

According to him, the RPA and “My Step” are active in terms of both negative and positive coverage in the media, as the RPA has chosen a clear strategy to oppose the new authorities.

“The campaign will be active, the political forces will spend a lot of money, oligarchs will fill the political money into the media. This will give the media some financial savings, because it’s possible that a similar opportunity will not present itself in the future,” said the President of the Press Club.

The smallest percentage of neutral coverage was recorded on online news sites, about 63.9% in 1in.am (debate programs) and 85.5% in News.am

Boris Navasardyan mentions that the monitoring results are very important because there are TV companies that want to ensure decent and balanced coverage.

“In the course of the campaign, it can protect their work from possible sanctions, because there may be a preliminary warning, a warning and then there may be a case of license deprivation.”

Gayane Asryan