III. DISCUSSION OF THE DRAFT NATIONAL ELECTIONS LAW AND THE DRAFT ELECTION COMMISSIONS LAW

M. Election campaign provisions

Article 22(16) prohibits campaigning “via foreign mass media, which is disseminated in the Kyrgyz Republic”. There is no legitimate basis for such a limitation. OSCE participating States recognize that citizens have the right “to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority regardless of frontiers, including through foreign publications and foreign broadcasts.”[1] OSCE participating States also commit themselves “to take all necessary steps to ensure the basic conditions for free and independent media and unimpeded transborder and intra-State flow of information, which we consider to be an essential component of any democratic, free and open society.”[2] The Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR recommend that these prohibitions be deleted from the draft law.

[1] Paragraph 26.1 of the OSCE 1991 Moscow Document.

[2] Paragraph 26 of the OSCE 1999 Istanbul Document.