A seven-page complaint details campaign coverage on Channel One, Rossiya and TVTs to show that the campaign actions of Medvedev received 85.1 percent of all television coverage. The sign reads "Together we will win. Russian presidential elections March 2."
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TV Coverage of Candidates Protested
The Communist Party and Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) will join forces to fight state television channels, which, they say, are giving uneven coverage to their candidates, Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, respectively. An enquiry was sent by Duma members yesterday to chairman of the Central Elections Commission Vladimir Churov demanding that the commission react to the predominance of United Russia Party candidate Dmitry Medvedev in state television campaign coverage. The enquiry was signed by 30 Duma members from the Communist Party and LDPR.
The seven-page document details campaign coverage on Channel One, Rossiya and TVTs to show that the campaign actions of Medvedev received 85.1 percent of the coverage, while Zhirinovsky received 7.2 percent, Zyuganov 5.3 percent, and candidate Andrey Bogdanov received 2.4 percent. The authors of the enquiry say that those facts call “into question the legitimacy of all the election campaign as a whole.” The National Television and Radio Broadcasting Co. press service declined to comment on the complaint, not did Channel One respond to it. Head of the TVTs legal department Igor Eremenko noted that Medvedev's activities as first deputy prime minister is not subject to legal media coverage limitations that apply to presidential candidates.
Mikhail Kasyanov, who was later denied registration as a presidential candidate, complained earlier to the CEC about the fact that paid political announcements were charged on the basis of ratings points and not by the minute. That complaint was not considered by the CEC. The Communists have complained during other elections as well. They once received were given time for Zyuganov and his advisors on a non-political talk show voluntarily by a television station in response.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 14, 2008
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