Press freedom commitments not met during Russian electoral campaign, says OSCE media freedom watchdog

VIENNA, 4 December 2007 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, said today that harassment of media outlets, legislative limitations, and arbitrary application of rules prevented equal media access by the political forces during the 2 December Duma elections in Russia.

Submitting a detailed report to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the handling of the media by the authorities during the election campaign, Haraszti said that his aim was to remind the Russian Federation of its commitment to guarantee a free and fair media coverage during elections.

"These findings are an early warning in view of the March 2008 presidential election. I ask the new State Duma to ensure the right of the media to provide balanced and objective information," said Haraszti, referring to the list of cases of media freedom violations he sent to Minister Lavrov.

"Unfortunately, the OSCE commitment to sustain a diversity of news sources was violated during the campaign for the State Duma. Television coverage was monopolized by the ruling party."

"Several cases of harassment and violence against the independent media have contributed to the intimidating atmosphere," said the OSCE Representative.

He noted the particularly grave incident of the kidnapping and brutal beating of REN TV journalists and human rights expert Oleg Orlov, in Nazran, Ingushetia, when they came to cover a demonstration against security forces.

"The monitoring by the Central Electoral Commission and the NGO Russian Union of Journalists showed a clear bias in favour of the ruling party candidates on the main television channels. Combined coverage of the President, Government and the ruling party approximated 80% of the total political time on the nation-wide channels."

"The President's party chose to ignore the TV debates, and was instead given extra time. While this was done in conformity with the electoral law, the TV debates for the rest of the political parties were downgraded and broadcast in the early morning and late night. This was a breach of the electoral law," said Haraszti.

He pointed out that negative campaigning was punished on the opposition side, but went unnoticed on the ruling party side.

The report with cases of media freedom violations during the 2007 Duma electoral campaign can be found at: Cases of media freedom violations during the electoral campaign to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, 2007