26 COMMUNIST PARTY OF RUSSIA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 2. Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention 89. The Court will now turn to the applicants’ main grievance, namely, that on account of the unequal media coverage of the electoral campaign by the major TV companies, the 2003 parliamentary elections were not “fair”, contrary to Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. (a) The Government’s submissions i. Establishment of the facts 90. The Government maintained that the applicants had failed to substantiate before the Supreme Court their claim that the media coverage of the candidates had been biased in favour of United Russia and had predetermined the results of the elections. Thus, the applicants’ assessment of the media coverage had been subjective, too abstract and unsupported by appropriate data and evidence. They had failed to explain the methods they had used to calculate the percentage of positive media coverage of the United Russia party and negative coverage of the opposition parties. They had not distinguished between “information slots” and other items of information, in particular commentaries by political analysts. TV programmes which presented some candidates in a favourable light and criticised others could not be considered as “campaigning” if they did not contain a subjective element with the specific aim of political campaigning. The mass media were free to comment on the candidates and their programmes outside the “information slots”. Neither had the applicants explained how they distinguished between “positive” and “negative” commentaries, or which criteria they had used. As a result, it was impossible to verify their assertions in that respect. Lastly, the applicants had not shown a causal link between the allegedly unequal media coverage and the results of the elections. Although TV was the main source of information for the population of Russia, the applicants had at their disposal other mass media (newspapers, radio, Internet) to convey their message. The fact that certain views about the candidates and their programmes had been expressed did not mean that the population had been prevented from voting for those political parties and candidates. Thus, there had been more favourable media coverage of SPS political party than of the political block Rodina (another participant of the elections), yet Rodina had received more votes than SPS. The Government concluded that there was no direct correlation between the amount of media visibility and the popularity of the candidates.