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Article 60
 

General Procedure for the Use of Mass Media

1. The pre-election campaign in the mass media of all forms of ownership shall be conducted in compliance with the principle of equal conditions and according to the procedure envisaged by this Law.

2. The pre-election campaign in the mass media shall be conducted in the form of public debates, discussions, "round tables", press-conferences, interviews, speeches, political advertisements, TV-portraits, video-movies and other publications and notices about the candidate to the post of Pre­sident of Ukraine and the party (bloc) that nominated the candidate, as well as other forms which do not contradict the Constitution of Ukraine and laws of Ukraine.

3. A candidate to the post of President of Ukraine registered by the Central Election Commission has the right to use state and municipal mass media at the expense of funds allocated from the State Budget of Ukraine for the preparation and conduct of elections on conditions envisaged by this Law.

4. The Central Election Commission establishes the procedure for providing airtime and print space at the expense and within the limits of the funds allocated from the State Budget of Ukrai­ne for the preparation and conduct of elections.

5. The pre-election campaign in mass media of all forms of ownership at the expense of funds from the campaign fund of the candidate to the post of President of Ukraine, shall be conducted on the conditions of equal payment per unit of air time and per unit of print space and shall only be restricted by the expenditure limits of the campaign fund.

6. The respective mass media shall, no later than 130 days prior to the day of elections, estimate the cost of a unit of air time and a unit of print space in an amount not exceeding the respective average cost indicator for the last quarter of the year prior to the year of the elections of the President of Ukraine. The Central Election Commission, together with the National Television and Broadcasting Council of Ukraine and the State Committee for Television and Broadcasting of Ukraine, shall determine the average cost indicator of a unit of print space and airtime. The estimations of the cost of a unit of print space and airtime for pre-election campaign purposes may not be subject to any changes during the election process. A mass medium may not grant discount to a certain candidate to the post of President of Ukraine or to the party (bloc) that nominated the candidate.

7. In case mass media publish the results of a public opinion survey related to the election of the President of Ukraine, it must indicate the organization that conducted the survey, the date the survey was conducted, the number of people interviewed, the method by which the information was collected, the precise formulation of the question, and a statistic evaluation of the possible error.

8. A mass medium that has provided a candidate to the post of President of Ukraine with airtime or print space shall not have the right to refuse to provide airtime or print space on the same conditions to another candidate. This demand does not extend to mass media that are owned (operated) by parties - subjects of the election process (by parties that are members of a bloc - a subject of the election process).

9. In case repeat voting is called, the Central Election Commission shall provide air time, print space and printed materials for the pre-election campaign at the expense of funds allocated from the State Budget of Ukraine for the preparation and conduct of elections in the sum of fifteen thou­sand times the minimum wage to every candidate to the post of President of Ukraine in­clu­ded in the election ballot for the repeat voting.