The office of the Press Secretary of the President of the Republic of Armenia has for the third time monitored political broadcast of private Armenian TV channels. Along with channels traditionally broadcasting political shows, some other channels were monitored which do not have regular political programming, but have occasionally touched upon political topics.
The monitoring was conducted in a direct form of observation of available broadcast. After fixation of participation in the broadcast by politicians, copies of relevant recordings were requested from the TV channels. We were particularly interested by programs with participation of:

1. Opposition political leaders.
2. Representatives of extra-parliamentary political forces.
3.  Public figures and independent political analysts.
4. Journalists of opposition media.

This selection was used to see if the private TV channels meet the threshold and criteria prioritized by the most authoritative international organizations with regards to opposition access to electronic media and level of freedom of expression in the country.
Meanwhile it should be mentioned that the monitoring concentrated on the above-mentioned focus-group, which is obvious from the attached statistical data-sheets. The results would have been even bolder if programs featuring all the public figures and activists unrelated to the Government, who have actively used their freedom of expression to criticize it, were included.
Overall, the findings of the monitoring that was conducted within last year are more than outspoken.
The first monitoring was conducted in the period between April 1 and June 23, 2006. Seven private TV channels monitored included “Kentron”, “ArmenAkob”, “Yerkir Media”, “Shant”, “Armenia”, “Yerevan” and “ALM”. In that period representatives in the four categories mentioned above had over 86 appearances. In different periods of time (e.g.: April 20, April 25, May 30, June 8) they dominated (about 40%) of the prime-time of the above mentioned channels (7.30pm to 10pm).
In the mentioned timeframe leaders of NU Artashes Gegamyan and NDU Vazgen Manukyan had 5 appearances each, Chairman of JUK party (Democratic Way party) Manuk Gasparyan – four appearances, Chairman of PPA Stepan Demirchyan 2 appearances, representatives of the oppositional “Justice” alliance – about 30 appearances.
Second monitoring was conducted between August 15 and October 17. Total of six private channels were monitored (“Armenia” and “Yerevan” were substituted by “H2” channel).
Representatives of the above-mentioned categories had 45 appearances. The decline in the number of appearances is justified by the decline in the number of monitored channels, as well as by the fact that the broadcast of all channels was dominated with events celebrating 15th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Armenia. Most talk-shows for that reason were dominated by historians and political activists of the period of state-craft, as well as by representatives of the sphere of culture. The dynamics of the appearances by opposition politicians was preserved. In the observed period of 60 days, on different channels Stepan Demirchyan, Vazgen Manukyan and Manuk Gasparyan had 3 appearances each, Artashes Gegamyan – 2 appearances, representatives of OEK (State of Rule of Law party) 4 appearances, members of parliament representing “Justice” alliance – about 10 appearances.
Finally, third monitoring was conducted between January 5 and March 6. Six TV channels were monitored. “ArmenAkob” channel was substituted by “TV 5” channel.
The representatives of the above-mentioned categories had total of 82 appearances during 60 days of monitoring. In this pre-electoral period, the programming was focused on all the candidates and forces which intend to run campaign for parliamentary elections. Representatives of “Justice” alliance had over 20 appearances, OEK – 5 appearances, HHSH (All-Armenian Movement) – 5 appearances, Armenian Communist Party – 4 appearances, “Union” party – 2 appearances, NU representatives – 3 appearances. There were also appearances of representatives of governing borders of the “Impeachment” alliance, Christian Democratic Party, “National Unity”, HRAK (APLP), AJM (National Democratic Union), Marxist party, AIM (National Self-Determination Union), HLPK (Liberal-Progressive Party of Armenia) leaders, representatives and leaders of two wings of a fractured SIM (Union of Constitutional Law) party, AJK (National Democratic Party), AJD (National Democratic Federation), “Republic” party.
It is not only on the basis of a technical calculation of number of appearances by opposition leaders upon which we evaluate the level of freedom of expression in Armenian private TV channels. It is also important to mention that overwhelming majority of the monitored broadcasts were “on air” and therefore impossible to sensor by the channels. As far as broadcast of preliminary recorded programs is concerned we were assured by the private TV channels that such programs had no editorial interference, and were recorded and compiled only with consideration of technical quality concerns.
This report of findings is accompanied by a full list of three phases of the monitoring and video-recordings of the last, 3rd phase of it.