Activity Details (ID# 18286)

Activity Synopsis

This activity was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan to support the Parliamentary elections in Armenia.

In connection with this Action Plan, the Council of Europe also organised an independent Media monitoring of Television and Radio Coverage of Political Actors in Armenia which was being carried out by the Caucasus Media Institute under the direction of an international expert.

The aim of this seminar was to discuss the first two reports of the monitoring with Armenian media professionals and to provide them with an opportunity to comment on its findings and to talk about the problems in the (pre-)election media coverage of Armenian broadcasters that had been identified by the report.

In a second instance, international media experts were to give practical training on specific problems pertaining to the media coverage of elections. 

Having regard to the results of the media monitoring, most of the participants were of the opinion that on the whole the coverage of politics of Armenian media had improved in recent times. Nevertheless, more progress still had to be made, in particular in order to achieve a more professional approach in the coverage of politics and to realise editorial and financial independence for the media. The participants also agreed that in order to protect themselves from internal and external pressure, journalists had to show greater solidarity with their colleagues.

During the seminar, the experts gave practical advice on how to set the agenda in news coverage of elections, on professional criteria for ensuring equal coverage of candidates having regard to the public interest and on ways of applying professional standards in practice. 

The participants expressed their satisfaction with the interest taken by international organisation in the democratic development in Armenia, which in their opinion also contributed to more efforts made in ensuring media freedoms.

Further practical training has to be provided to journalists on improving the quality of their coverage of politics. 

media professionals from private and public broadcasting and the written press 

Mr Aled Eirug, Former Head of News & Current Affairs, BBC Wales, United Kingdom
Mr Gie Meeuwis, SPLIT SCREEN Media Consultancy and Productions, Belgium
 

Mr Vahagn Muradyan, Council of Europe Information Office Yerevan