No more complaints about lack of freedom of speech?
With 97 for, 0 against and 1 neutral, the parliament passed the bill on changes and additions to the RA law on "Television and Radio" by the first reading.
This means that even the opposition deputies voted for the bill. In fact, co-author of the bill, Deputy of the "Heritage" party Anahit Bakhshyan announced from the NA podium that the committee praised the bill and proposed to vote for it.
In her speech, Anahit Bakhshyan noted that the bill guarantees freedom of the press and allows appointment of representatives of bodies regulating broadcasts to be elected "through democratic and transparent elections". According to Bakhshyan, the important thing is that the president of the Commission on Television and Radio is appointed by the RA President through a contest for a six-year term and has a number of requirements and limits.
How will this bill solve the issue of "A1+" coming back on air, which is one of the demands in the PACE Resolution? In response to that, Bakhshyan said that the bill does not provide the opportunity to solve that issue. But she informed that a bill is put into circulation by which they propose to annul the change made in the law passed on 2008 December 10 by which there will be no tenders for television broadcasts until January 21, 2011 due to digitalization.
