The Registry of media that will provide advertising services for paid political advertising for the forthcoming parliamentary elections will evidence 242 media outlets out of which 159 are portals, 39 are radio stations, 32 are TV stations and 12 are printed media, informs the State Election Commission (SEC).
The Macedonian media were obliged to submit tariffs for paid political advertising. The media that didn’t registered themselves in SEC”s Registry of Media will have no right to use financial assets for paid political advertising during the elections 2020.
SEC published the tariff according to which all pre-election adverts by parties will be published in the media. According to the changes in the Election Code, the highest payment that the media will be able to collect for paid political advertising cannot be higher than the average price that was accomplished during the past electoral cycles.
The new way of paid political advertising during the pre-election period received negative reactions by experts and the media.
Dejan Georgievski, the President of the Media Development Center, stressed that the price for the advert in the media shouldn’t be limited. He also stressed that the pre-election political advertising in the media with public funds is completely unacceptable and cannot be justified in any way.
The TV stations were the first who reacted to SEC’s published tariff. Their managements accused teh SEC that it directs the media to lower their prices without taking into account the ratings of each TV station and the difference in prices for broadcasting adverts in prime time vs the remaining slots for broadcasting.
