Against this background of internal struggles, complicated mutual and external relations and dismal economic conditions, elections took place. These elections were, it has become a normal feature of elections campaigns, observed by international organisations. The European Institute for the Media (EIM) has over the past years monitored the media coverage of elections in various countries of central and eastern Europe and the New Independent States. The media have a crucial role to fulfil during elections and are often the sole source of information on the candidates and issues under debate. Unprofessional or unbalanced information or the non participation in the election campaign can prejudice the results. The EIM therefore also observed the coverage of the elections in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The team was present in the countries approximately three weeks prior to the respective elections and analysed the media coverage both quantitatively (by putting the time and space devoted to candidates and parties in tabular form) and qualitatively (by conducting interviews with media professionals and politicians). Additionally, the legal framework regarding the coverage of the elections was assessed. The conclusions drawn by the monitoring teams are provided below. The combination of information concerning the political situation, the democratic conduct of the elections and the situation of the media enable both in country and comparative conclusions. The state of the media in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan can be assessed, compared and linked to the political and economic situation in the countries. Firstly, attention will be devoted to the democratic conduct of the elections in the three republics. Subsequently, it will be made clear that there appears to be a parallel between procedural violations in the course of the electoral process as observed by international organisations and the freedom and independence of the media as observed by the European Institute for the Media. Secondly, some remarks regarding the regulatory framework for the media will be made. Thirdly, and rather importantly, the structural difficulties for the media will be outlined. This mainly concerns the financial problems for independent outlets and the influence of the authorities on the state owned media. Finally, the nature of the editorial coverage and the professionalism of the journalists will be addressed. Democratic elections and the media The conduct of the elections in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan was observed by various international organisations (EU, OSCE, UN). Their conclusions can be summarised as follows: The elections in Armenia were marred by the suspension of the Dashnaktsutyun party, by the manipulations of the elections of chairmen of the Regional Electoral Commissions and by the large number of votes rejected as invalid. Although imperfect, the elections were considered free and there was no strict condemnation. The elections in Georgia were generally considered to be democratic, free and fair. There were no problems regarding the registration of parties/candidates, and the counting of votes was also deemed to have been conducted in a correct manner. The Azerbaijan elections, in contrast, were openly denunciated even before the arrival of most observers. This was mainly due to the large number of parties/candidates whose registration was refused. The procedural violations on election day merely exacerbated the assessment of the observers. In summary, on a sliding scale of democratic conduct, Georgia tops the list, followed by Armenia and then Azerbaijan. This order parallels the freedom of the media and the absence/presence of interference by the authorities as observed in this report. The (independent) media in Georgia were hardly 8 OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3