Republic of Azerbaijan early parliamentary elections February 9, 2020

Introduction

The mass media, including electronic media, play an important role in ensuring free, fair, and democratic elections. Receiving information and shaping ideas using electronic media is of particular importance. Studies show that 94-95% of people's information needs are provided by electronic media, or people choose these tools to meet their information needs. While the reader will have to pay a certain amount for reading the smallest circulation newspaper, people can get access to the broadcasts and information provided by television and radio, which are electronic media, without paying any money.

Television and radio broadcasts not only provide information but also play a key role in shaping people's thoughts and ideas. From time to time, it can become a serious campaign or counter-campaign tool. In this regard, it is imperative that the electronic media, especially the broadcast media, adhere strictly to international broadcasting standards and do not exceed the limits set by the legislation.

Broadcasting tools play an important role, especially during elections. The behavior of broadcasting agencies, their broadcasting policies, and campaigns in favor of or against the candidates play a major role in the voting of voters and shaping voters' thoughts about one or another candidate. It is important for voters to know just how objective, impartial, neutral, and legitimate the broadcasters are to identify the right ones and make the right choices.

Furthermore, the public's ignorance of what electoral legislation has brought to the broadcast media can sometimes cause the media to show extreme bias.

National Television and Radio Council and the Central Election Commission, which are the state bodies responsible for regulating the broadcast in the elections, ignore the obvious violations and do not want to apply legal norms against these facts in the absence of public scrutiny. The press group formed under the CEC during the election period to monitor the activities of the mass media in accordance with the electoral legislation is ineffective because it is unilateral.

Over the past 5 years, the state's direct investment in the media sector in Azerbaijan has amounted to about 300 million manats. The state-owned broadcaster, Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting Closed Joint Stock Company (CJSC) received the largest amount of money from this fund. The amount it received from the budget was 160,346,087 manats. The second-highest-paid media institution was the Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. It received 64,798,173 manats. The main media agencies fed by the state were not simply the state and public 1 broadcasters. Since 2012, private broadcasters have also received over 30 million manats each year under different names. These funds were provided only to five private broadcasters nationwide.2

For this reason, the activities of electronic broadcast media, especially televisions and radios, which are funded from the state budget and of which activities are regulated by special laws and normative legal documents, must be strictly monitored and audited by civil society organizations and the results of monitoring must be publicized.

Goals and objectives of monitoring and assessment

The main purpose of monitoring and assessment is to minimize the ideological and campaigning factors in shaping voters' pre-voting opinions, to present the media's attitude, behavior, compliance ratio with laws, impartiality, fairness, neutrality, and objectivity to the public before elections. This will make it easier to assess whether the elections are in compliance with legislative norms, democratic principles, and commitments undertaken by the country, as well as international acts that they have been a party to.

Article 3 of the Law “On Television and Radio Broadcasting” sets out the basic principles of broadcasting activity. The broadcaster’s activity must be based on the principles, which are the comprehensiveness, objectivity, completeness, and accuracy of information, freedom of citizens' thoughts and ideas, ideological and political pluralism, impartiality and neutrality, inadmissibility of interference with people’s private life and family life, protection of national and moral values, obeying professional conduct and moral norms, and high quality of programs.

In addition, Article 3 of the Law “On Public Television and Radio Broadcasting” provides the same qualities in the principles of public broadcasting service. In other words, the principles of impartiality, neutrality, and accuracy of information, pluralism, and tolerance during broadcasting are at the forefront of the fundamental principles.

The goals of the monitoring are to determine to what extent the media remains adherent to its functions as an educational, informative, and campaigning means provided by the Election Code during the processes of nomination, signature collection, and registration of candidates, including the campaign, as well as to provide an opportunity to discuss by presenting the results of monitoring to the public on the fair environment created for the parties and the above indicators.

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The main task in the monitoring is to summarize the results at appropriate intervals throughout the election campaign, to send them to the parties involved in the election process, international organizations, the regulatory authorities, the electronic media agencies, and the CEC along with the public, and to prepare recommendations based on the results.

Monitoring during the election period and preparing and presenting relevant proposals to the public will increase the interest of electronic media in their work; hence, it raises the probability that the CEC and NTRC will be more interested in the implementation of the law by learning lessons from the mistakes. Moreover, voters will be more informed, they will make more accurate decisions during the election, a clear view of society will be shaped about the process of formation of election results.

Monitoring can be assessed as a contribution to the administration of individuals of the community, who exercise the function of public control. Particularly, it will lead to that the NTRC and the CEC, which are the regulatory bodies, will be more attentive in their work and it will encourage more careful and flawless functioning, as they will be convinced of the existence of public control.

In general, monitoring was planned to be conducted in two stages for a 60-day period. Monitoring was started from the beginning of the 60-day period prior to the voting day. Initial monitoring will be conducted over a 37-day period until January 17, 2020, which is the start date of the election campaign, and results will be presented.

Results are presented by conducting initial monitoring over a 37-day period until January 17, 2020, which is the start date of the election campaign.

Since it is difficult and impossible to cover all large and small media organizations, monitoring has been conducted using a method that helps to identify the overall picture. With the prevalence of electronic media in the category where the public receives information, a choice was made that reflects the political palette of televisions and internet media, with the state broadcasting (AzTV), public broadcasting (ITV), and Real TV, which has received the latest licenses and specializes in broadcasting, have been monitored for this purpose. The 19:00-23:00 broadcast time, which is the prime-time of AzTV, ITV and Real TV channels was monitored for 4 hours. Thus, a 12-hour broadcast was monitored daily. In the meantime, information, news programs, news derivation programs, talk shows, debates, discussion programs, analytical programs, and special releases that could influence citizens' voting in the elections were monitored. Seconds are used to measure time as a measurement method, at the end, hours, minutes, and seconds are specified precisely. In addition, programs coinciding with monitoring time, brief information about them, guest identity, topics, etc. information were also mentioned specifically with its time. The most convenient way to monitor TVs was chosen, live internet resources on TVs were watched with a fast internet connection, as well as watch all the broadcasts were carefully reviewed by watching live TV programs directly on television.

Online media organizations and newspapers, which have received the most IPs from the ruling, opposition, and impartial media, have also been monitored in a selective manner (including their political position) with the aim of not making a point of the fast-paced internet media, as well as traditional newspapers. At this time, taking into account their political positions, the official news agency – Azertac (www.azertag.az), the official body of the Parliament – Azerbaijan newspaper, the website of Report News Agency – www.report.az, the website of Turan News Agency – www.turan.az, Meydan TV, as well as the internet resource of the Azadlig newspaper (www.azadliq.info), which is close to the opposition, were monitored. In these resources, the information that could be associated with the electoral process was recorded by the number of symbols and were classified according to the nature of the information.

During the monitoring of television, answers to these questions were sought:

1. The time when the information was aired during prime-time (by showing the hour, minute, and second);

2. The information which is of an educational and informative nature;

3. The information which is of a news and campaign nature, although the campaign is not officially launched;

4. Information in favor of the government and its supporting party (with the indication of time and quantity);

5. Information against the government and its supporting party (with the indication of time and quantity);

6. Balanced information;

7. Information in favor of the opposition and its supporting party (with the indication of time and quantity);

8. Information against the opposition and its supporting party (with the indication of time and quantity);

9. Programs assessed in the monitoring and their airtimes. The same approach is taken for online media and newspapers too. Simply there the time was replaced with the number of articles and they were shown.

Results of the Monitoring of Televisions

The table presents the results of the monitoring of the first 37 days (until the campaign period) of the election calendar. Monitoring figures are given in hours, minutes, and seconds, and finally in total seconds.

During the 37-days of monitoring, “prime-time” covered a total of 444 hours for 3 TVs (37 days * 3 TV * 4 hours per day). During the 444-hour prime-time period, news programs, news derivation programs, debates, discussion programs, talk shows, and final analytical programs related to the electoral process were evaluated. 23.19% of total “prime-time” of television time has been identified and included in the evaluation as appropriate for quality monitoring. All TVs had a total of 103 hours 32 minutes and 46 seconds of social and political information associated with the electoral process or capable of influencing voters during elections in a 444-hour period. This covers 23.19% of all prime-time.

Classification of information

A total of 33 minutes and 40 seconds (0.53%) of 103 hours 32 minut e s and 46 s e conds of information were educational information of 3 TVs within 37 days. In addition, the information related to the campaign was 180 minutes and 32 seconds (2.89%), and the impartial information was only 60 minutes and 57 seconds (0.96%). The vast majority of 103 hours 32 minut e s and 46 s e conds of information covered information that is in favor of the government and its supporting party with 97 hours, 23 minutes and 56 seconds. This covers about 94% of all information. Within 444 hours of prime-time, including 103 hours 32 minut e s and 46 s e conds of information, information that is against the government and its supporting party was not even 1 second (0%).

Within 444 hours of prime-time, while 103 minutes 32 minutes and 46 seconds of information does not cover even 1 second in favor of the opposition and its supporting party, 93 minutes and 43 seconds (1.49%) of 103 hours 32 minutes and 46 seconds of information within 444 hours of prime-time was against the opposition and its supporting party. Thus, the results of the monitoring of televisions show that there is no opposition in the country. In particular, none of the information of 444-hour broadcasts of AzTV, ITV, and Real TV covers information in favor of the opposition. Thus, there is no such political class or political color in the country due to the approach of these TVs. In the 444-hour prime-time, 103 hours 32 minutes and 46 seconds of political information did not provide any balanced information. Thus, only the unilateral information was provided. Therefore, the result is 0% in the category of balanced information.

Sharing of information between TVs

AzTV has the largest share in total information. 5 5 . 1 % o f t h e i n f o r m a t i o n w h i c h w a s a s s e s s e d i n monitoring falls to the share of AzTV. This shows that a serious impact of state television on the p o l i t i c a l campaign process continues. The second-place falls to the share of Real TV. Real TV ranks after AzTV with a 33.74% share. The share of ITV is 11.6%.

Sharing of information in TVs related to political parties

When evaluating information regarding the political parties, the three TVs had a 0.53% educational information over the 444-hour monitoring period in 37 days. While the weight of the information in favor of the government was 94% in the overall position, it was 0% in favor of the opposition. While the information was generally available in favor of the government and its supporting party as 97 hours 23 minutes and 56 seconds (350,636 seconds), it was not even 1 second in favor of the opposition and its supporting party.

The balance was also violated in the same way for information against them. In general, it was generally treated in the information as if the opposition did not exist. During the 444-hour monitoring period, 1 hour 33 minutes and 43 seconds (5,623 seconds) of information was against the opposition and its supporters. This represents 1.49% of the total information. During the 444-hour monitored prime-time, not even 1 second was provided against the government and its supporters.

REAL TV – Classification of general information

Real TV breaks the news one in every 30 minutes (about 8 times a day) in its prime-time. The news is mostly repeated. Most of the line-ups and open discussions on the campaign of the government a r e b e i n g b r o a d c a s t o n Real TV. During 37 days prime-time of Re a l TV, 148 h o u r s o f information was monitored. Of these data, 27 minutes and 40 seconds were e d u c a t i o n a l

information, 102 minutes and 56 seconds were information related to news and campaign, and 46 minutes and 22 seconds were impartial information.

Sharing and balance of information with regard to the political parties on Real TV

1869 minutes and 38 seconds (112,178 seconds) of partial information on Real TV was evaluated as the information in favor of the government and its supporters. There was no information (0 seconds) in favor of the opposition and its supporters. While there were 50 minutes (3,000 seconds) of information against the opposition, the channel did not provide any information (0 seconds) against the government and its supporters. Information was issued neither against the governments nor in favor of the opposition. Thus, all information evaluated as partial with regard to political balance was in favor of the government and against the opposition on Real TV that the only political color for this broadcaster was the government and its supporting party, with 100% result in favor of it. While 100% of partial information was in favor of the government and its supporting party, it was 0% in favor of the opposition. While 100% of partial information was against the opposition on Real TV, it was 0% against the government and its supporters.

AzTV – Classification of general information

During 37 days prime-time of AzTV, 148 hours of information was assessed within the framework of monitoring. Of these data, 2 minutes and 20 seconds were educational information, 44 minutes and 32 seconds were information related to news and campaign, and 7 minutes and 15 seconds were impartial information. The sharing of partial information is also remarkable. 3,329 minutes and 34 seconds were in favor of the government and its supporters and 0 seconds were against them. On the contrary, 39 minutes and 43 seconds were against the opposition and its supporters and there was not even 1 second in favor of them. The political palette of the country was presented in one color. Neither balanced information, nor in favor of the opposition, nor against the government was aired.

Sharing and balance of information with regard to the political parties on AzTV

All information, which was considered as in favor of the one and partial, on the state television was 55 hours 29 minutes and 34 seconds (199,774 seconds), which covered the campaign for the government and its supporting party. Information in favor of the opposition or impartial information did not appear.

All information, which was considered as against the one and partial, on the state television was 39 minutes 43 seconds (2,383 seconds). All were against the opposition and its supporting party, and there was not any information that could be considered as against the government.

ITV – Classification of general information

The distinctive features of the public channel from the other channels are separately indicating the purpose of its establishment and its regulation by a special law. ITV must build its broadcasting policy as balanced and provide equal opportunities to political parties. During the monitoring period, 11 hours 32 minutes and 48 seconds, or 692 minutes and 48 seconds information was involved in the evaluation. Of this information, 0.43% were educational, 1.01% impartial, and 4.76% news and campaign. The remaining 93% was evaluated as partial. Of this information, 99.9%, or 644 minutes and 44 seconds, was in favor of the government and its supporters. Only 0.57%, or 4 minutes, could be characterized as information against the opposition.

Sharing and balance of information with regard to the political parties on ITV

ITV has shown itself as a completely unilateral information broadcaster. The TV did not provide information against the government and its supporters and in favor of the opposition and its supporters, as was the case with the other two TVs. Partial information on TV covered 94% of the total information. All information, which was in favor of the one, was in favor of the government and its supporters. It covers a period of 10 hours 44 minutes and 44 seconds. There was no information in favor of the opposition

The amount of information, which could be considered against the one, was only 4 minutes on ITV. It was directed against the opposition. There was no information against the government.

Result

Generally, the 37-day prime-time monitoring of 3 different broadcasters, one state, one public, and one private broadcaster, reveals two important results; 1. The provisions specified in the basic principles of broadcasting activity under Article 3 of the Law “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”: “The broadcaster’s activity must be based on the principles, which are the comprehensiveness, objectivity, completeness, and accuracy of information, freedom of citizens' thoughts and ideas, ideological and political pluralism, impartiality and neutrality, inadmissibility of interference with people’s private life and family life, protection of national and moral values, obeying professional conduct and moral norms, and high quality of programs”, were grossly violated. 2. The terms of objectivity, impartiality, neutrality, respect for political diversity, and balance, which have become a universal value as the principle of media ethics, were grossly violated. In this monitoring, it is clear that electronic resources – TVs broadcasted on national frequencies in the country are far away from the media of a democratic society and do not work towards the formation of democratic values.

Results of the monitoring of newspaper and online media

The table above summarizes the results of the monitoring of 5 mass on the topic of election media from December 12, 2019, to January 16, 2020, within 37 days. In general, since the written texts were monitored, the number of articles were recorded, and then, in essence, the total amount of articles was first shown in front of the names of mass media, and then articles were assessed and shared with the headings as follows: informative and educational, news and campaign, in favor of the government and its supporting party, against the government and its supporting party, impartial, in favor of the opposition and its supporting party, against the opposition and its supporting party. The notion of the government and its supporting party includes political party representatives and individuals who do not systematically criticize government policies, support the government, directly or indirectly praise, support, or take a side of the government in the referendum, the budget adoption, and the discussion of key issues. In other respects, the notion of the opposition and its supporting party includes individuals and politicians who criticized the government in the elections, the referendum, and the budget adoption and expenditure, disliked its activities.

General view of 37-day monitoring of newspaper and online media

The status of the five media organizations monitored from December 12, 2019, to January 16, 2020, is reflected in the diagram on the left side. A total of 703 articles or writings were evaluated within the framework of monitoring. Azertac News Agency is the side that covered the election process and fell to the monitoring mostly. Its 324 information covered 46% share. Second place, with 29% share and 205 information, belonged to the Azerbaijan newspaper. Third place was Report NA. It comprised 113 information with a 16% share. Turan NA was ranked fourth with 34 information. Its information ended up with 34 articles. There came the Meydan TV website in fifth place with a 3% share. Its number of information was 18. In the last place, there came the Azadlig newspaper, which distinguishes by its affinity to the National Council and the PFPA that are the opposition parties boycotting the elections. Only 9 of its information fell to the monitoring and it was slightly over 1%.

Classification of “informative and educational” information in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 31 of 703 materials fell to the category of “informative and educational” information. Of the 31 information, 42% were in Azerbaijan newspaper, 29% in Report, 10% in Azertac, 10% in Turan, 6% in Meydan TV, and 3% in Azadlig newspaper.

Classification of information related to “news and campaign” in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 181 of 703 materials fell to the category of information related to “news and campaign”. Of the 181 information, 36% were in Azerbaijan newspaper, 36% in Report, 18% in Azertac, 7% in Turan, 4% in Meydan TV, and 0% in Azadlig newspaper.

Classification of information “in favor of the government and its supporting party” in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 399 of 703 materials fell to the category of information “in favor of the government and its supporting party”. Of 399 information, 69% were in Azertac, 24% in Azerbaijan newspaper, 7% in Report.az, 0% in Turan, 0% in Meydan TV, and 0% in Azadlig newspaper.

Classification of information “against the government and its supporting party” in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 6 of 703 materials fell to the category of information “against the government and its supporting party”. All 6 information was in Azadlig newspaper. In other resources, there was no information that could be assessed as against the government and its supporters.

Classification of information “in favor of the opposition and its supporting party” in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, only 2 materials fell to the category of information “in favor of the opposition and its supporting party”. These pieces of information were in Azadlig newspaper. In other resources, there was no information that could be assessed as in favor of the opposition.

Classification of information “against the opposition and its supporting party” in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 5 materials fell to the category of information “against the opposition and its supporting party”. Of these pieces of information, 3 were in Report, 1 in Azerbaijan newspaper, 1 in Azertac. As a percentage, 60% were in Report and 20% each were in the other two resources.

Classification of “impartial” information in the resources monitored

In the resources monitored, 79 materials fell to the category of “impartial” information. This is 11.24% of the total information. The impartial information is ranked by resources as follows: Azerbaijan newspaper 39%, Turan 23%, Azertac 16%, Meydan TV 11%, and Report.az 10%. There was no information in Azadlig newspaper in this category.

Sharing of 703 information monitored across the categories

In the sharing of a total of 703 information monitored across the categories, 399 of them fell to the share of information in favor of the government and its supporters. This is at the top with 57%. In the second place, information related to news and campaign has a share of 26% with 181 information. Impartial information covers 79 of the total 703 information and is ranked third with 11%. In the informative and educational category, there were 31 evaluated information and ranked fourth with 4%. The number of evaluated information against the government was 6 and did not even reach 1%, with a result of 0.85%. The number of information against the opposition was 5 (0.71%). The lowest share fell to the share of information in favor of the opposition with only 2 pieces of information. This a 0.28% result and these pieces of information were in the opposition newspaper, Azadlig.

Azərbaycan newspaper

During the monitoring period of the Azerbaijan newspaper, the official body of the Milli Majlis, there was 205 information. Of these, 13 were informational and educational, 64 were news and campaign, 96 were information in favor of the government and its supporting party, 31 were impartial, and 1 was information against the opposition. There was no information against the government and in favor of the opposition.

Azertac

The official website of the Azertac News Agency, which is an official state agency and receives more than 5 million manats from the state budget annually, has the highest number of information monitored during 37 days compared to the other mass media. In total, 324 out of 703 information fell to the share of this mass media. 324 information was monitored. Of these, only 3 articles, or 0.93%, were informative and educational, 33 articles, or 10%, were related to news and campaign, and 13 articles (4%) were impartial.The remaining 85%, or 275 information, is rated as comprehensive. The information contained in this classification is 99.7% in favor of the government and its supporting party.

Report News Agency (report.az)

The total number of information monitored in 37 days from the official website of the Report News Agency was 113 out of 703. Of these, 9 articles, or 8%, were informative and educational, 64 articles, or 57%, were related to news and campaign, and 8 articles (7%) were impartial. The remaining information is assessed as partial information. The information contained in this classification was 64 articles (26%) in favor of the government and its supporting party and 3 articles (3.1%) against the opposition and its supporting party.

Azadlig newspaper

Monitored information fell to the share of the Azadlig newspaper was only 9 in 37 days. The Azadlig newspaper is known for its affinity to the National Council and the PFPA which boycotted the elections. Therefore, only 1.28% of all information fell to the share of Azadlig newspaper. 6 of the information (67%) that were released on the Azadlig were against the government and its supporters. Two of them (22%) were in favor of the opposition and its supporters. One information (11%) was informative and educational.

Turan News Agency (turan.az)

The total number of information monitored in 37 days from the official website of the Turan News Agency was 34 out of 703. It has a 4.84% share in total information. Of these, 3 articles, or 9%, were informative and educational. 13 articles, or 38%, were news and campaign, and 18 articles (53%) were impartial. There was no information fell to the remaining categories.

Meydan TV

The total number of information monitored in 37 days from the official website of the Meydan TV was 18 out of 703. It has a 2.56% share in total information. Of these, 2 articles, or 11%, were informative and educational. 7 articles, or 39%, were news and campaign, and 9 articles (50%) were impartial.