28 COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT had provided all participants in the elections with equal opportunities of access to the media and had not shown a preference for any party or candidate. (b) The applicants’ submissions i. Establishment of the facts 96. According to the applicants, media coverage of the elections had been seriously biased in favour of United Russia and thus affected the voting preferences of the electorate. During the electoral campaign, federal TV channels had disseminated, in the guise of simple coverage, information which could be classified as campaigning (and not coverage). About 75 per cent of unlawful campaigning in favour of United Russia had been conducted by State television and radio stations, which, in the applicants’ view, showed a deliberate abuse of State media resources. The applicants referred, as an example, to the reporting on Mr Putin’s statement of 7 December 2003, which, taken in conjunction with his other interviews and news items broadcast beforehand, had made it clear that he was supporting United Russia. On the State-controlled TV channel his words had been relayed unabridged and thus amounted to de facto campaigning. NTV (which was not State-owned, or at least not directly) had reported on the same news in a more appropriate manner, indicating that Mr Putin had refused to tell the journalists his choice. 97. The fact that there had been a positive image of United Russia and a negative one of the Communist Party had been confirmed by the findings of the Working Group on Information Disputes of the CEC. Furthermore, in the Election Observation Mission Final Report, the OSCE/ODIHR had noted that most media coverage was characterised by an overwhelming tendency of the State media to exhibit a clear bias in favour of United Russia and against the Communist Party. In particular, throughout the campaign the majority of media coverage had been devoted to reports on the activities of Mr Putin, a fact considered to indirectly benefit the campaigns of the pro-presidential political parties. Similar findings had been made in the report by Transparency International-Russia. 98. The influence of TV programmes on the electoral preferences of the population could not be denied. The fact that other means of information were also available should not be used as an excuse for the biased media coverage by the State-controlled TV channels. In the proceedings before the Supreme Court, the CEC had failed to adduce any proof that the unfair reporting on State TV channels had been sufficiently balanced by proopposition publicity in other mass media. The applicants argued that TV played a central role in media coverage of the elections and that it necessarily had an effect on the voting preferences of the population. The applicants also referred to the results of the polls conducted in 2003