THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 13 the course of the electoral campaign and “electoral campaigning” (or “agitation”, agitatsiya). 42. “Electoral campaigning” was an activity undertaken with the aim of encouraging voters to vote for or against a certain candidate. Electoral campaigning on television was permissible as from the twenty-eighth day before election day and was to be ceased on the eve of election day. 43. Holders of certain higher public offices (including that of the President of the Russian Federation) and journalists were not allowed to engage in electoral campaigning unless they were formally registered as candidates. In any event it was illegal for them to do so while using the advantages of their official status on pain of administrative fines. The maximum amounts of expenditure were prescribed by law. The fact that an item of information - an article, a video clip and so on - was political campaigning was to be mentioned in the publication, and the source of funding should be indicated. 44. The law enumerated situations which could be characterised as campaigning. They included, inter alia, dissemination of materials in which information about a particular candidate is prevalent and accompanied by positive or negative comments, analysis of the consequences of electing this or that candidate, information about activities of a candidate which were not related to the performance of his official duties, and so on. The law also established a number of requirements of and limitations on the campaigning. 45. The law at the time provided that all candidates and parties had an equal opportunity to obtain a certain amount of free and paid airtime or printed space for their electoral campaigning. The conditions for obtaining airtime were identical for all candidates, and concerned both public and private mass media. Political parties registered at the federal level had a right of equal access to the national mass media, including State TV and radio-broadcasting stations. Individual candidates (affiliated or not to a political party) had similar rights in respect of access to the regional mass media. 46. “Electoral campaigning” was distinguished in the law from “informing”. Informing was mainly the task of the “State authorities, municipal authorities, electoral commissions, media companies, legal entities and individuals” (section 54(1) of the Duma Elections Act, section 45(1) of the Basic Guarantees Act). It had to be objective, factually accurate and should not show preference for any candidate. Informing should consist of giving a neutral account of the progress of the electoral campaign, of the candidates’ profiles, platforms and so on, within the “information slots” (airtime or printed space dedicated to informing). Those “information slots” should not be aligned with the position of any candidate and should not contain comments or value judgments. The mass media had to separate objective information from statements of opinion. At the same time the