…AND OVER MASS MEDIA’S ROLE IN ELECTIONS

. The CentralElectoral Commission has issued an instruction requiring all mediato print free of charge the government’s election propaganda,Moscow’s Echo radio reported August 7. Although the instructionformally covers only "mass media in which the governmentowns part of the capital," in practice it is almost all-embracingbecause almost all electronic and print media outlets have atleast some, even if small, government participation. The Chairmanof the Duma’s media committee, Igor Yakovenko, will try to restrictthe application of this law only to media outlets in which thestate is the majority shareholder, Russian TV reported August7.