II. Comments on the text of the draft law

G. Media and Information Support of Elections

Article 67 of the draft law lowers the blackout period during which opinion polls cannot be published by the media from 15 days to 10 days. This is a positive improvement that complies with a previous recommendation of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR. However, consideration should be given to further reducing the blackout period.[1]

[1] See e.g. the Council of Europe Recommendation on Measure concerning Media Coverage during Election Campaigns 1999, para. 3.2 and Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on media coverage of election campaigns 2007.