14 COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT mass media were free in their editorial policy (section 45(4) of the Basic Guarantees Act) and were allowed to comment on political events and personalities outside the “information slots”. C. Position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the distinction between “informing” and “campaigning” 47. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has ruled that professional journalists are regarded as involved in electoral campaigning only if they do so with special intent to campaign in favour of or against one or more candidates (judgment of 30 October 2003, no. 15-P). Thus, in order to distinguish between campaigning and informing (that is, normal journalistic activity) the courts have to establish whether or not the journalist pursued a specific aim of influencing the voting, dolus specialis. Where there is no such specific aim (the existence of which should be established by the courts), the materials, articles and so on must be considered as “informing”. The Constitutional Court further stressed that, whilst the law required that information slots on TV and radio be neutral, the mass media were not prohibited from expressing their own opinion about candidates or giving comments outside the scope of the information slots. D. Complaints about breaches of electoral law 48. Under the Basic Guarantees Act, the CEC was the central body responsible for organising and overseeing the electoral campaign at the federal level. It was also empowered to consider complaints about breaches of electoral law (section 20 of the Basic Guarantees Act). The CEC was entitled to refer such complaints to the law-enforcement and other official bodies for further consideration and reaction. Decisions of the CEC, taken within its competence, were binding on the lower electoral commissions, federal and regional State bodies, public officials, local authorities, candidates, parties, organisations, and voters. State broadcasting companies were required by law to provide free airtime to the candidates and parties during the elections and were required to give replies to the requests of the electoral commissions within five days of receipt. 49. Section 75 of the Basic Guarantees Act provided that unlawful acts and omissions of the public authorities and officials were amenable to judicial review. It further established rules of jurisdiction on applications for judicial review of acts and omissions of the CEC and regional commissions. The Basic Guarantees Act also provided for an appeal to a higher electoral commission against decisions of the lower electoral commissions. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation had power to invalidate the results of the federal elections if the violations committed did