Free airtime prohibited in Armenia

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"It would be better if we had a draft law that read "Free television and radio airtime is prohibited in Armenia"," said deputy of "Heritage" faction Armen Martirosyan as he expressed his disappointment in the RA government's changes to the RA law on "Television and Radio".

"When Nerses Yeritsyan was presenting the issue of digitalization two years ago, he said all television companies would be able to receive licensing for airtime. Today, only 18 out of 22 television stations will remain. What happened to the Minister's promise, the multiplex effect?" asked Martirosyan.

The draft law was presented by Deputy Minister of Economy Mushegh Tumasyan who gave a general description and started responding to deputies' questions.

The Deputy Minister noted that the opportunities will be given during the stage of development and only 18 television companies can be licensed due to technical difficulties.

ARF Deputy Artsvik Minasyan noted that the draft law is not to make changes in the existing law, but it is a law itself.

"Why have you been so clever to end discussions by two readings? Has the draft law been discussed with the media and representatives of non-governmental organizations?" asked Minasyan.

Mushegh Tumasyan informed that the OSCE's comments are at their disposal, but didn't say whether they were used when developing the draft law.

As far as cleverness is concerned, he didn't see any tendency. "We simply took the propositions of the existing law and included the proposition for digitalization in this draft." President of the committee on European integration, former journalist Naira Zohrabyan took note that some of the most important propositions of the existing law had not been included in the draft law, particularly the point that the committee is obliged to substantiate licensing or denial of this or that company.

Let us note that this was the requirement of the European Court of Human Rights which was formulated in the text that required upholding the claim by "A1+" and restoring the latter's violated right.

In addition, Mrs. Zohrabyan noted that another proposition that obliged the person granting licensing to ensure pluralism had been taken out as well. Zohrabyan also didn't understand why the draft law was so urgent that it wasn't even discussed by the superior committee and wasn't agreed with the committee on European integration, especially since the change was being made by Europe's demand and with the purpose of meeting European standards.

During the break, journalists tried to find answers to their questions from the Deputy Minister.

"Mr. Tumasyan has just joined this process and isn't well aware of the details," said the press speaker for the Ministry of Economy. As to why the Minister didn't present the disputed draft law, the press speaker clarified that the Minister was very busy with the Prime Minister.