Russian Federation

[RU] Equal Rights Law Passed

IRIS 2009-7:1/32

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

On 12 May 2009 President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia signed into law the Federal Statute О гарантиях равенства парламентских партий при освещении их деятельности государственными общедоступными телеканалами и радиоканалами (“On Guarantees of Equality of Parliamentary Parties as to the Coverage of their Activities by the State-Run General TV and Radio Channels”).

The Statute deals with the coverage of the political parties represented as factions in the State Duma (the national parliament) by State-run broadcasters other than special sports, culture, music and children’s channels. The Statute shall not be in force during the period of election campaigning in the mass media (or the period of 28 days prior to the ballot day) when the Federal Statute "On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in a referendum of the citizens of the Russian Federation" takes precedence (see IRIS 2002-8: 10).

The Statute deals with the activities of the party administrative bodies, factions and the deputies at all levels of State and municipal authorities. If party members are not explicitly stated as such (e.g., the prime minister or cabinet ministers) in a broadcast, the time allotted to them shall not be counted.

Information about the parliamentary parties shall be equal on a month-by-month basis (para. 1 Article 3) on national TV, national radio channels, regional TV, as well as on regional radio channels (para. 3 Article 5). The authority to oversee that the Statute is observed shall be the Central Election Commission (CEC). If equal time is not allotted the CEC makes a decision to compensate for the shortage of the coverage within the following 30 days. The CEC publishes an annual report in an official daily as to observance of the Statute.