Parliamentary election coverage in the Belarusian mass media

This Report summarizes the monitoring results from the Belarusian electronic and printed media coverage of the Parliamentary Election held on October 17, 2004.

During the monitored period (from August 16 to October 16, 2004) on September the 7th the President of the country proclaimed the National Referendum to allow him to take part at 2006 Presidential election contrary to the Article 81 of the Belarusian Constitution, which says that “One and the same person can be the President no more than two terms”.

The proclamation of Referendum, which was held on the parliamentary election’s day, noticeably influenced the whole of the election coverage in the state-owned electronic and printed media, which ascribed to the Referendum-related topics a prominent significance.

This monitoring Project was implemented by the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) with the consultancy of MEMO98, Slovak NGO based in Bratislava, and International organization Article 19 “Global Campaign for Free Expression”, having its headquarters in London.