The Ombudsman asked the Central Election Commission to start as soon as
possible the procedures for repealing the decision that obliges private
media outlets to accept electoral video materials that have been
pre-edited by the political parties.
After the appeal of the Journalists’ Union, which considered this a violation of the right to information and a dangerous precedent for the community of journalists, the Ombudsman declared that the voting of this decision by only four CEC members is a flagrant law violation.
As regards the content of this decision, legal experts of the Ombudsman say that the article defined by the amended Electoral College is general and not obligatory, same as it has been declared in the decision of June 3rd 2013.
“The way how article C is formulated in the CEC decision is a clear violation of the freedom of speech that is guaranteed to the media by our Constitution”, the Ombudsman declared in the recommendations sent to the Central Election Commission.
This decision, according to him, means going beyond the competence that CEC has received by the Electoral Code.
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