Candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus, for deputies of the House of Representatives and for deputies of local Councils of Deputies, political parties, other public associations, labour groups and citizens who have nominated their candidates have equal rights to use state mass media from the time of registration of candidates.

The state mass media, mass media partially financed from the state budget or local budgets as well as mass media, one of the founders of which is state bodies or organizations, are obliged to provide equal opportunities for electoral statements of candidates, publishing and promulgation of issues, texts of draft laws put forward for referendum, holding the agitation on elections, referendum.

Information materials about candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus, for deputies, disseminated in the mass media should be adequate and objective; they should be impartial without preference given to individual candidates.

A candidate for the President of the Republic of Belarus, for deputy of the House of Representatives has the right to publish free of charge in mass media mentioned in part two of this Article his electoral program, having presented the text of the mentioned program not later than 20 days prior to the elections.The volume of electoral program which shall be published free of charge in mass media for the candidate for the President of the Republic of Belarus may not exceed five printed pages, for the candidate for deputy of the House of Representatives – two printed pages.

The list of mass media where electoral programs of the candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus shall be published free of charge is determined by the Central Commission.

When publishing the electoral programs of the candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus, the order of their submission shall be observed.

Candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus have the right to free of charge statements on the state television as well as on the radio.The National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus submits, within 10 days after fixing the date of the elections, to the Central Commission a limit time for statements of the candidates on the state television as well as on the radio.The mentioned broadcasting time shall fall on the period, when TV and radio programs have the greatest audience.

The order and number of statements by the candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus on television as well as on the radio are determined by the Central Commission.The statements of candidates shall be ensured on equal terms.

The Central Commission reserves a part of the limit time as to hold TV debates of the candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus, deputies of the House of Representatives.The TV debates are held upon agreement of the candidates.The candidate is entitled to authorize an authorized person to participate in the TV debates.Failure to participate in the TV debates shall not result in increase of broadcasting time provided to the candidate for free.

The candidate for deputy of the regional, the Minsk City, the district and the city (in the cities of regional subordination) Council of Deputies has the right for one free-of-charge appearance on the local state radio.The National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus, the regional, the district and the city (in the cities of regional subordination) bodies of radio broadcasting shall, not later than 30 days before the elections, submit to the regional, the Minsk City, the district and the city (in the cities of regional subordination) territorial electoral commissions the limit of time for appearance of candidates for deputies on the local radio which shall determine the time of appearance of candidates for deputies.It is necessary to provide appearance of candidates on equal footing.

Journalists, officials in mass media are prohibited to host television and radio programs, to participate in broadcasting elections by means of mass media if the mentioned persons are the candidates for the President of the Republic of Belarus or their authorized persons.

Mass media cover preparation and holding of the elections.Information about the sittings of the Central Commission and its decisions are published in the republican press, and those ones of the electoral commissions, commissions on referendum – in local press.

State mass media are obliged on request of the Central Commission to provide it with an opportunity to transmit information about the course of the electoral campaign, preparation to republican referendum.

Within the last five days prior to the elections it is not allowed to publish the results of public polls related to the elections, referendum, forecasts of their results.