THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 15 not permit the genuine will of the voters to be ascertained (sections 75 and 77 of the Basic Guarantees Act). 50. The Code of Administrative Offences (CAO) of 30 December 2001 established sanctions for certain breaches of electoral law, such as the failure by the mass media to comply with the rules of press coverage of the electoral campaign (Article 5 § 5 of the Code), or unlawful electoral campaigning through audio-visual and printed mass media by a candidate (Article 5 § 8). Article 5 § 11 established sanctions for electoral campaigning by persons who, by virtue of their position, were precluded from participating in electoral campaigning. Article 5 § 12 of the Code established sanctions for the unlawful production and dissemination of campaigning materials. Offences provided by the above mentioned provisions of the Code were punishable by fines ranging from 3,000 to 600,000 roubles (RUB), depending on the status of the offender and the seriousness of the violation. III. RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS 51. The European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), at its 51st (Guidelines) and 52nd (Report) sessions on 5-6 July and 18-19 October 2002 adopted the “Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters”. The Venice Commission distinguished two particular obligations of the authorities in relation to the media coverage of electoral campaigns: on the one hand to arrange for the candidates and/or parties to be accorded a sufficiently balanced amount of airtime and/or advertising space including on state television channels (“the access to the media obligation”) and on the other hand to ensure a “neutral attitude” by state authorities, in particular with regard to the election campaign and coverage by the media, by the publicly owned media (“the neutrality of attitude obligation”) (Explanatory Report to the Code of Good Practice on Electoral Matters, § 2.3). The Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters also recommended the creation of an effective system of electoral appeals, among other things, to complain about non-compliance with the rules of access to the media (§ 3.3). 52. The standards relating to public service broadcasting were further developed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the Appendix to Recommendation no. R (96) 10 on “The Guarantee of the Independence of Public Service Broadcasting” (1996). The Committee of Ministers recommended that “the legal framework governing public service broadcasting organisations should clearly stipulate their editorial independence and institutional autonomy”. Furthermore, “the legal framework governing public service broadcasting organisations should clearly stipulate that they shall ensure that news programmes fairly present facts and events and encourage the free formation of opinions. The cases in