A1 Plus | 21:47:51 | 17-03-2004 | Politics |

URSULA SCHLEICHER HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE

Ursula Schleicher and Armen Rustamyan, Co-Chairs of European Union-Armenia
Parliamentary Cooperation Commission held a press conference Parliament.

Mrs Schleicher expressed joy over the unprecedented economic growth but
added that there are still poor in Armenia and Government had to elaborate
poverty reduction project.

As to provision of speech freedom and pluralism in electronic Mass Media,
Mrs Schleicher informed that the delegation had met Grigor Amalyan. He had
introduced Schleicher the licensing order and explained that broadcasting
can be granted only through tender.

We asked if European Union has key factors to send a group of experts to
check whether there are free frequencies in the Armenian field since
Armenian Communication Minister and Amalyan insist there aren’t any whereas
the specialists confirm the contrary. “Armenia is a CE member and CE has
legal methods to solve such problems. You’d better address it for that
purpose”, Mrs Schleicher answered.

By the way, at the end of the 6th sitting of European Union-Armenia
Parliamentary Cooperation Commission parties approved a statement, which
consisted of rather gentle phrasings, for instance the clause on press
freedom says. “An attention is paid to the vital role of free press to
provide democracy development in Armenia and underlines necessity of
pluralism of electronic Mass Media”.

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