26.04.09

The Duma (its majority, of course) adopted in the second reading the draft law guaranteeing political parties represented in the federal parliament equal coverage in state-owned media. The parliamentary opposition voted against the legislation, assuming that media outlets "will now praise United Russia no more than they curse the opposition."

The parliamentary opposition was initially inclined to back the law whose idea had been first suggested by President Dmitry Medvedev in his message to the Federal Assembly last autumn. Medvedev promised political parties with factions in the Duma equal coverage in state media outlets. The opposition fully expected from the president a draft law that would give it access to federal TV and radio broadcasters.

These hopes were fed to a considerable degree by the existing law "On coverage of state power structures and their activities" adopted in 1995. The acting legislation demands 45-minute coverage of the work of the Duma and Federation Council every week by TV Channel Russia. Besides, incumbent lawmaker is entitled to 7 minutes once every two months on the TV channel in the region from which he or she was elected into the parliament in the first place. Also importantly, the law demands from federal TV networks regular programmes where representatives of different Duma factions will oppose one another.

The 45-minute coverage demand is met by programmes Parliamentary Hour (Duma chronicle) and Senatorial Club (Federation Council), that much the opposition admits. As for the seven minutes of air time on local networks, getting them a sheer impossibility.

The Duma minority (CPRF, LDPR, and Fair Russia factions) expected the draft law on guaranteed equality of media coverage to develop the incumbent legislation and formulate additional guarantees of equal access to the media. The draft law in question does commit TV Channel Russia and Radio Mayak to absolutely equal air time for Duma factions regardless of their numerical strength as of September 1 this year. (The Central Electoral Commission was tasked to keep an eye on how this demand is observed.)

The parliamentary opposition had noticed, however, that the new mechanism of air time equality voided the existing provisions of the law "On coverage of state power structures and their activities". Parliamentarians (mostly the CPRF faction) therefore decided to amend the draft law for the second reading in such a manner as to retain what they had already been entitled to since 1995.

Boris Kashin (CPRF faction) called for concretization of the legislation. He said TV channels should be ordered to provide "minimum air time" for political parties and leave its content entirely to the parties' own discretion. "Otherwise, TV networks will now praise United Russia no more than they curse the opposition," was how he put it. "Actually, give us a chance to say what we want said and curse us twice as much. We agree even to it," Kashin said.

Sergei Popov (United Russia faction) retaliated by pointing out that "the president suggests a mechanism of equal guarantees, and not that of equal coverage." The lawmaker acknowledged existence of a problem with coverage and advised the opposition to draw amendments to the laws "On coverage of state power structures and their activities" and "On status of Federation Council members and Duma deputies". To make a long story short, not one amendment the parliamentary opposition had drawn for the second reading was taken into account.

"Let's take at least a month and see how the new law operates before coming down to the quality and content of coverage," Alexander Ivanchenko of the Russian Center for Electoral Techniques suggested.

Foundation Public Expertise Director General Igor Yakovenko on the other hand plainly stated that the law would have absolutely no effect at all because information channels and content "are regulated by political will (of certain individuals) and not by the law." Yakovenko added that not even regular coverage would add to the clout the CPRF or LDPR wielded with the Duma which in its turn wielded no clout at all with domestic policy. "What the lawmakers were trying to do yesterday was improve the mirror that did not show anything in the first place," Yakovenko said.

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Source: Kommersant