Translated material
Ethereal Equality
Parliamentary parties will be provided with equal access to state electronic media
Last Friday, the State Duma approved in the first reading the presidential law on guarantees of equality of parliamentary parties (currently there are four of them - United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia) when covering their activities on state television and radio channels. The bill concerns VGTRK, the 24-hour information channel "Vesti", the TV channel "RTR-Planeta", the Russian version of "Euronews", three radio stations - "Radio Russia", "Mayak", "Culture", as well as the state Internet channel "Russia" , uniting more than 20 Internet resources.As the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the State Duma, Harry Minkh, told the deputies, the document is aimed at implementing the provisions of last year's presidential address, in which Dmitry Medvedev advocated for equality of parties in front of the media. The task of monitoring the amount of airtime allocated to each party falls to the Central Election Commission.
For this purpose, a special working group will be created at the Central Election Commission, which will include two representatives from each parliamentary party, the Public Chamber of Russia, the All-Russian Broadcasting Organization and the federal executive body authorized to exercise control and supervision in the media sector. The CEC must develop a methodology for recording airtime and prepare corresponding regulations. According to the bill, if the CEC reveals violations, it decides to compensate the amount of airtime of the party whose interests were violated.
As State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov told reporters, now during speeches and statements by faction deputies or members of the party's governing bodies, television programs will have to provide captions indicating party affiliation, and radio programs - corresponding explanations. The speaker noted that the law will not apply to coverage of the activities of government bodies - “these are non-partisan issues, they concern every citizen, regardless of his political sympathies.” And during the election campaign, coverage of the activities of parliamentary parties will be regulated not by this document, but by electoral legislation.
“In fact, the bill is based on the same principle that operates in the State Duma,” Mr. Gryzlov concluded, recalling that factions are given an equal amount of time to state their position when considering various issues.
The document was approved in the first reading by 381 votes, with ten deputies voting against it. The Communist Party faction did not take part in the voting due to mistrust of the Central Election Commission. As communist deputy Oleg Kulikov said, the reputation of this department is “severely tarnished.” He also believes that the presidential bill “effectively removes pre-election debates in the media from political practice.”
The LDPR faction supported the presidential initiative. “As optimists, we hope for the best,” said faction deputy Sergei Ivanov. Fortunately, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky remains one of the most telegenic people in Russian politics.
The Social Revolutionaries also spoke in favor of the document. A member of the A Just Russia faction, Gennady Gudkov, called the bill “a step forward,” “and this is better than pushing around.” He also proposed extending the principle of equality not only to federal, but also to regional and municipal media. At the same time, Mr. Gudkov announced the existence on television of black lists of politicians who should not be shown. The deputy said that, according to his information, on one of the TV channels even the head of the Accounts Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, is included in such a list. Gennady Gudkov also spoke in favor of introducing the practice of live broadcasting of Duma plenary sessions, “as in all civilized countries.”