The participants of the round table, dedicated to the mass media of Kyrgyzstan before and during elections, consisted of leading media experts, representatives of Kyrgyzstan's expert community, the Central Elections Committee (CEC), NGOs and international organizations, and journalists of local and foreign mass media.

In the opening speech, Muratbek Imanaliev, IPP president, pointed out the importance of the meeting: "The topic of the round-table is prescient. The result of the parliamentary elections will decide the country's destiny. Kyrgyzstan is the only country in Central Asia which is undergoing transition and transformation. However, it does not mean that the result of today's situation will be positive. Current activities of the state show great opportunity for positive transformations," - said Imanaliev, and he added that mass media will play an important role.

According to the head of IPP, the political precondition for success in the coming political season will be the accurate and objective coverage by the mass media: "There is space for maneuvering, and this is due to the favorable approach of the state towards the media."

Zainidin Kurmanov, a well-known political expert, emphasized in his greeting speech the importance of the mass media in the coming elections, and underlined that the third political national campaign is characterized by the growing influence of the mass media in the decision-making process in Kyrgyzstan. "The role of mass media in our society can hardly be overestimated. They shape public opinion, participate in policy-making, they are even better than professional politicians. It is possible to ask the question: where is the decision-making settled in the country? On the pages of the press or at the decision-making agencies?" According to the expert's opinion the last factor is a positive global tendency, and the "forth power" today determines a vector of further developments in the country.

The participants of the round-table discussed the role of mass media during elections and also identified many other problems related to the coverage of the election process in Kyrgyzstan.

The media ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic, Shamaral Maychiev said there are disputable issues in the country's legislature that for a long time have lacked attention.

"One of the problems is art.30, cl.18 of the acting Code of Elections, where mass media needs to present the price-list of their services during pre-election agitations within a short time period. The mass media cannot meet the requirement of this clause while the CEC treats this issue very selectively."

"This provides certain ground to think that the CEC allows having double standards when one kind of mass media can be late and be forgiven, and others will not," - emphasized Ilim Karypbekov, Director of the Media representative institute.

Another problem that prevents objective coverage, according to media experts, is the absence of Law on political advertising.

"The Law on Advertisement" in its art.1 says that this law regulates issues related to the promotion of goods, and it is pointed out here that political advertising is regulated by the law on the same. However, in practice, political advertising is not within the legal space. As a result, there are lots of efforts to use social and commercial advertising as a latent political promotion," - said Maychiev.
Experts noted it is unfortunate to see that work with journalists in covering elections is not effective, and relates to representatives of the authorities, civil society and more experienced journalists. According to experts' view, subjects of the election process have to define the concept of pre-election agitation, since before and after such agitations some serious breaches of the Code on elections occur.

Lawyers define and explain the indicators of pre-election agitation according to the presence of stimulating motives in journalists' activities, in published, radio and TV materials.

Karypbekov thinks that usually agitation appeals are presented as informational material: "Even the most advanced lawyers cannot sometimes differentiate whether there is preference or promotion in an article. I can tell for sure that linguists and language experts have not been involved in court trials to provide their expertise."

While characterizing the general and current situation of the Mass media in Kyrgyzstan, experts identified a range of negative factors that impact freedom of speech in the country: the absence of independent digital mass media, the dissolution of the Supervisory Board of the National TV and Radio Corporation, an economic dispute with the newspaper "Kyrgyz Ruhu" and weak legislation in the field of mass media.

As for the pre-election process, journalists pointed out the fact that the work of CEC is not coordinated well, and it presents different information that often becomes a source of many disputes among subjects of the election process.

A member of the CEC, Gulya Ryskulova declared that soon within the CEC a working group will be created to deal with informational disputes and this group will include independent experts and experienced journalists. This news was welcomed by participants of the round-table.

"The CEC approaches mass media in quite a democratic way. However, today we are full of complaints and various statements addressed to the mass media. Because of lack of time, all cases concerning the publication of materials featuring administrative violations are sent directly to the courts. Despite the tough schedule, we try to find time to prepare journalists. Everyday we face the problem of inaccurate coverage of pre-election competition by journalists, an open propaganda of party candidates," - said Gulya Ryskulova, presenting her report, adding that the most widespread mistake of the mass media is their ignorance of compulsory information presented by the CEC:

"If the mass media do not publish information presented for dissemination by the CEC is a serious breach, which is understood to be an avoidance of informing the constituency."

Also, the CEC representative recommended the mass media look for legal assistance, consult with the CEC members and present only "completely clean information," i.e. only material of a factual nature.

Marat Tokoev, chairman of the public association "Journalists", stressed the point that mistakes by some media representatives happen not on purpose but as a result of their ignorance: "In fact, most of the mistakes by journalists are made because of the interference of the information policy of the owners and founders of mass media." Also this expert specifically emphasized the necessity to solve those issues that relate to the security of journalistic activity: "Today it is especially important to pay attention to the facts of attacks and harassment of journalists; a number of such cases may increase because of the intensification of the political situation."

One of the key moments in the discussion was the question of the participation in pre-election agitation and the coverage of the election process by foreign media. According to some participants of the round-table, the Code on Elections limits the right of journalists working for the BBC, Azattyk, Arguments and Facts, Moskovskiy Komsomoles, Komsomolskaya Pravda and other foreign media.
In the course of the round-table, certain risks were discussed for the media during elections as well as the social responsibility of journalists in this period.

"Mass media must think about the promotion of Kyrgyzstan's statehood, work towards building a strong society. We must learn to have dialogue not by force but on the pages of the press and on TV and radio. I hope that the media will not serve as an explosive but will be able to unite with their founders and think about their country," - said Igor Shestakov, media consultant.

Some recommendations to adequately cover election process for all participants of the social and political process include the need to involve independent media experts in the working commission of the CEC on the informational maintenance of elections. This group will monitor violations, support and promote independent internet-resources as well as educational programs for journalists. It will also conduct a structural analysis of the informational spaces of Kyrgyzstan and work on models of interaction between society and the mass media and its subjects, as well as make a detailed interpretation of the Code of Elections, and provide legal assistance to mass media.

A separate provision was presented specifically for mass media representatives in order to ensure an equal access to information resources on all the 15 political parties that presented complete lists. Another recommendation was addressed to the CEC: Media experts drew attention to the fact that the CEC should not use its right to remove certain parties from pre-election competition, in the case of violation of legislation, since it deprives the constituency of their electoral rights and impacts their choice.