BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 11. Pre-election promotion should use at least three hours of free airtime per week, said Chairman of the Audiovisual Council of Azerbaijan Ismat Sattarov during a meeting on the possibilities of equal election campaigning and the basics of the activities of media subjects in the early presidential election in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
According to Article 77.1 of Azerbaijan's Electoral Code, the public broadcaster provides equal opportunities for registered candidates at the expense of funds given by state authorities. Presidential candidates are entitled to free air time on the public broadcaster. The entire amount of free airtime allocated for pre-election promotion should be at least three hours each week.
"Free airtime will be offered to registered candidates on equal terms and in equal amounts. The free airtime will be held for a larger audience to see. The time and date of the airing of electoral materials will be selected by a draw held by the respective election commission with the participation of the broadcaster's representatives. Information about the location and timing of the draw is officially publicized," he noted.
The chairman mentioned that a public broadcaster should also have reserve airtime for the election campaign on a paid basis.
"The amount and terms of payment for all registered candidates should be the same, and the relevant information about it should be published no later than 30 days from the day of official publication of the decree on the appointment of election. The total amount of reserve airtime, which the public broadcaster will provide on a paid basis, by Article 80.5 of the Electoral Code, cannot be less than the total amount of free airtime provided (three hours) and more than twice as much," Sattarov said.
He emphasized that the norm of using spare airtime on a paid basis for each registered candidate is determined by dividing the total amount of time by the total number of registered candidates.
"For example, if a total of 3.5 hours (210 minutes) of paid airtime is allocated and there are seven candidates, each of them can use 30 minutes of airtime on a paid basis.
"Private broadcasters are free to participate in the process of pre-election paid campaigning, but they must notify the CEC of their intention to do so. They cannot be coerced to distribute election propaganda materials. If such materials are broadcast by a private broadcaster, the broadcasting circumstances must be the same for all candidates," he concluded.
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