PACE TO WAIT FOR NATURAL CHANGE OF GENERATIONS
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| 13:50:10 | 11-06-2005 | Politics |
“All rights including the principles of freedom of mass media should be
fixed in the Constitution, but it does not mean that there should not
be any law for regulating the field or creation of some limitations
within the frames of the international documents, specifically the
European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms”, Vice Speaker of
the Armenian National Assembly Speaker Tigran Torosyan stated.
“There is an erroneous opinion spread in Armenia that should be
corrected. Only with the help of documents, Constitution and laws
we will never live a proper life. Is there a mechanism that allows
an individual or media to gain respect and protection of rights? “It
is very important to create a mechanism, which provided punishment
for every violator of human rights. If everything in life could
be regulated by laws and the Constitution it would be perfect”,
T. Torosyan said adding that traditions and culture is no less
important. According to him, during the recent years the preference
was given to the economic reforms, today it is necessary to reconsider
this approach and proceed to public and political reforms
As for the independence of mass media, the order of appointment of
the National Committee on TV and Radio is very important. According
to the legislative amendments made at PACE’s request, the order of
the appointment has allegedly become more transparent and members are
appointed on competitive basis. The President announces a contest and
appoints the winners members of the committee, who later elect the
chairman. According to coalition’s draft constitutional amendments
neither the NA nor any other body has the rights to appoint the
committee members. Thus, as a matter of fact the problem has not
been settled.
To remind, PACE demanded on the basis of the last amendment to the
law on the NCTR to change the composition of the Committee. Thus,
only three members of the committee were elected on competitive basis.
Tigran Torosyan noted that if we lived in a country where unwritten
laws functioned members of the present committee would resign by their
own will, a contest would be announced and new composition formed.
However in our country even written laws do not work properly,
consequently the law and PACE will have to wait until natural change
of generations.
Diana Markosyan