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

M. Media Provisions

Articles 22-28 of the draft national elections law govern the conduct of electronic and print media during a pre-election campaign, inter alia providing for free and paid broadcast time and print space to candidates, based on equal conditions. The state media are obliged to allocate fixed amounts of time and space to candidates, free of charge, from the start of the official campaign. At the same time, at least one-third of allocated time must be devoted to “joint discussions, round tables and other similar campaigning”.