Navasardyan: Campaign ahead of constitutional referendum in Armenia quite politicized, not about reform’s essence

The campaign being conducted ahead of the referendum on the constitutional reform in Armenia should provide more information about the contents of the draft amendments to the Constitution, the chairman of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan said during a briefing held today to discuss media coverage of the constitutional reform referendum in Armenia.

“During the first days after the launch of the campaign, we could see some videos that addressed more the relations of the authorities and the opposition than the contents of the constitutional amendments,” Navasardyan pointed out.

He presented an interim report about monitoring of several television channels such as First Channel (H1), Armenia, Second Channel (H2), Yerkir Media, and Kentron from October 26 to November 5.

According to B. Navasardyan, Yerevan Press Club also plans to submit an interim report on monitoring of coverage of the referendum campaign by TV channels from November 6 when an active campaign began to December 6.

In the opinion of Navasardyan, in Armenia’s political arena, during discussions of the draft constitutional amendments, the main emphasis is placed on a transition to the parliamentary system of government, while the other proposed changes to the Constitution remain in the background, as a result of which “citizens of the republic get no opportunity to understand what changes the draft amendments propose - apart from the transition to a parliamentary system.

As was reported, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on August 21 sent the draft constitutional amendments to the country’s parliament. The draft was developed by the Special Commission on Constitutional Reforms adjunct to Armenian President. The Armenian president set December 6, 2015 as the date for the constitutional referendum. The campaign for the constitutional reform referendum in Armenia began on October 10 and will end at midnight of December 4.