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UNDP AWARDS GRANTS TO 4 TV COMPANIES

Official

Today UNDP Resident Representative Ms. Consuelo Vidal concluded Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) for provision of grant funds with, Lori TV LLC (Vanadzor, Lori marz), Media Center Ltd. (Yerevan), Hrazdan TV Company (Hrazdan, Kotayq marz), and STV1 Television Edition (Sevan, Gegharkunik marz) – the four finalist TV companies to develop and broadcast TV programmes on corruption issues.

The winners of this initiative were selected through a competition open to TV stations and individual journalists or groups of journalists. The selected winners were those who articulated a well formulated, thought provoking plan and demonstrated an ability to implement it.

The goals of the competition are: 1) To strengthen media’s capacity to monitor and report on corruption issues, thus contributing to the fight against corruption; 2) To air TV programs to serve as a source of information, discussion of issues, allowing the viewer to form his or her own opinions about the subject under discussion; and 3) To raise the population’s awareness of corruption issues in Armenia in order that better-informed viewers may have a better understanding of, greater involvement in, and greater impact on, the fight against corruption.

Ms. Vidal said in her remarks to the winners that: “UNDP is pursuing a new, innovative approach. The purpose of the grant competition is to motivate broadcast companies and journalists to come up with new, thought provoking ways to address issues of particular concern to Armenia. We have begun this pilot within our anti-corruption activities as we have a particular focus on strengthening the capacity of the media in this field. We hope the Armenian public will find the productions interesting, and that the broadcasts will motivate all members of society to fight corruption.” This activity is part of UNDP’s project on “Strengthening Awareness and Response in Exposure of Corruption in Armenia”, which UNDP implements in cooperation with the Government of Armenia. The project aims at strengthening the institutional capacity of government and civil society organizations to effectively participate in anti-corruption initiatives.