| The YABLOKO party: mass media should put barriers to dirty election technologies.
The election campaign to the State Duma has not actually begun yet. However, today we can state with certainty that this campaign will be marked by mass-scale use of dirty technologies. This statement was made by one of the leaders of the YABLOKO party, deputy of the State Duma Sergei Mitrokhin at a press conference at the Interfax agency at the end of last week.
YABLOKO has de facto become the first martyr of so-called 'black PR'. First leaflets describing the allegedly concluded union between YABLOKO and the CPRF appeared in the Moscow metro and then billboards and banners with the same content appeared in the streets of the capital. Even earlier a campaign about the 'red YABLOKO' had been conducted in the regional press.
Evidently YABLOKO's competitors do not like the growing rating of the party. But it is difficult to detect which political forces ordered this campaign. However, according to Mitrokhin, YABLOKO knows who did it. Mitrokhin also informed the media that YABLOKO had applied to the Public Prosecutor General and Central Electoral Commission of Russia with a demand to curb these provocations and uncover the people behind this campaign.
According to Mitrokhin YABLOKO opposes the introduction of amendments to the laws on the mass media and elections which would restrict journalists' rights. His party thinks that mass media are able and should put barriers in the way of 'black PR'.
See also:
State Duma Elections 2003
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