The TsIK rejected on 20 February complaints by presidential candidates Irina Khakamada and Nikolai Kharitonov about television and radio coverage of President Putin\'s 12 February speech to his election agents, Russian media reported. The commission ruled that the programming reflected the public interest and that the stations were only informing the electorate, not campaigning. According to the TsIK, state-controlled ORT and RTR said they will provide equal news coverage of all presidential candidates for the remainder of the campaign for the 14 March election. The TsIK decision noted that Putin\'s speech was given more airtime than is usually given to reports of campaign events, and that under certain conditions, \"the presentation of election-campaign events of this candidate may be viewed as favoritism.\" ORT and RTR aired Putin\'s 29-minute speech live. (RIA-Novosti)