YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
JULY 1-7, 2005
HIGHLIGHTS:
EVENTS FOR THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF YEREVAN PRESS CLUB
THIRTY-SECOND `PRESS-CLUB SHOW’
`ARAVOT’ STARTS A FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL PRINT RUNS
RA OMBUDSMAN’S WEB SITE LAUNCHED
NCTR CONSIDERED THE BIDS FOR BROADCAST LICENSING COMPETITIONS
CASE ABOUT THE ATTACK ON THE CHIEF EDITOR OF `SYUNYATS YERKIR’ STOPPED
CONDOLENCES
EVENTS FOR THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF YEREVAN PRESS CLUB
On July 18 Yerevan Press Club will celebrate the 10th anniversary since its
foundation. A number of events will be held on this occasion by YPC:
On July 15 at 12.00 a presentation of the books, published by YPC during the
past months, will be conducted at the Journalists Union of Armenia;
On July 16 at 12.00 at the House of Chess after Tigran Petrosian Chess
International Grandmaster Artashes Minasian will place a simul with
journalists;
On July 17 at 18.30 at `Pyunik’ stadium a soccer game will be made between a
team of journalists and `Diplomat’ team, represented by the RÀ Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the international and diplomatic missions accredited in
Armenia;
On July 18 at 11.00 at the Journalists Union of Armenia a press-conference
will be held on YPC’s 10th anniversary;
On July 18 from 13.00 till 16.00 the Komitas Chamber Music House will host
YPC Annual Award Ceremony.
THIRTY-SECOND `PRESS-CLUB SHOW’
On July 4 on the evening air of the Second Armenian TV Channel the
thirty-second `Press Club’ show was issued. The cycle is organized by
Yerevan Press Club under a homonymous project, supported by the OSI Network
Media Program.
The discussion subject of representatives of leading media and journalistic
associations of Armenia was the activity of the RA Human Rights Defender. By
the forecast of `Press Club’ participants, the Armenian media will focus
this week at the process of constitutional reforms in the country,
particularly in the context of the 10th anniversary of the Main Law in
force, celebrated on July 5. Another priority event for media, in the
opinion of the program participants, will be the session of the OSCE
Parliament Assembly in Washington (July 1-5, 2005), in particular, the
report of a Special Representative of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on
Mountainous Karabagh conflict Goran Lenmarker.
`ARAVOT’ STARTS A FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL PRINT RUNS
Since July 7 `Aravot’ started to be produced with the red seal of its
founder and publisher (`Aravot’ LLC), which is now placed on the front page
of each newspaper copy. `The distributors who accept our daily without the
seal will thus be marketing stolen goods and be legally responsible for
that’, `Aravot’ warns in its editorial (`Aravot’, July 7, 2005). The readers
who happen to get illegal copies are requested by `Aravot’ to report this by
a 24-hour-a-day phone line, open also for comments and proposals on the
newspaper content.
RA OMBUDSMAN’S WEB SITE LAUNCHED
On July 7 at Tekeyan Culture Center the presentation of the web site of RA
Human Rights Defender () was held. The internet resource in
three languages, Armenian, English and Russian, was created under `Promotion
of Human Rights in Armenia and Increasing Public Awareness about the RA
Human Rights Defender Institute’ program, implemented by the RA National
Assembly and the UN Development Program with the financial support of the
Cooperation Development Minister of the Netherlands.
NCTR CONSIDERED THE BIDS FOR BROADCAST LICENSING COMPETITIONS
On July 1 the National Commission on Television and Radio considered the
bids submitted for broadcast licensing competitions in a number of Armenian
regions. As it has been reported, the competitions were announced on March
22 with two packages of frequencies (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
March 18-24, 2005).
The package of 17 UHFs in the cities of Armenia (this time the license for
these frequencies is held by `Akn’ TV company) was claimed by only one
bidder, `Armenia’ TV company.
There was only one bidder for the second package of 9 FMs, too. This was
`ArRadioInterContinental’ that currently has a license for these
frequencies.
The results of the competitions will be announced by NCTR on August 18.
At the same NCTR session on July 1 it was decided to grant `Teleport’ LLC a
license for cable broadcasting in all the communities of the capital.
Previously, `Teleport’ LLC did cable broadcasting only in one community –
Malatia-Sebastia of Yerevan.
CASE ABOUT THE ATTACK ON THE CHIEF EDITOR OF `SYUNYATS YERKIR’ STOPPED
On June 30 `Syunyats Yerkir’ disseminates a statement on the discontinuation
of the litigation on the attack of the Chief Editor of the newspaper Samvel
Aleksanian, committed on October 13, 2004.
As it has been reported, the incident occurred in the editorial office,
where three men, one of them being the Chairman of `Syunyats Artsivner’
(`Eagles of Syunik’) NGO Khachik Asrian, attempted to learn from Samvel
Aleksanian why `Syunyats Yerkir’ published critical articles on the
activities of the Syunik region Governor and the Prime Minister of Armenia.
Not getting to the end of explanations, Asrian hit the Chief Editor into the
face with fist, and then applied the baton he had brought (see details in
YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 8-14, 2004).
On the incident criminal proceedings were instituted on Article 258 of the
RA Criminal Code (`Public Disorder’); the case itself was transferred to the
court of primary jurisdiction of Syunik region. At the same time, in the
opinion of Samvel Aleksanian, the preliminary investigation was conducted
quite partially. `Having studied the materials, I had an impression that
quite a differently incident was investigated’, he told YPC, stressing that
a war is unleashed against him and his publication in Syunik region.
Notably, on the early morning of April 1 another incident occurred – the car
of the Chief Editor was burned, qualified by him as another action of the
local authorities (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, April 1-7, 2005).
As the statement of `Syunyats Yerkir’ above informs, on June 24 the court of
primary jurisdiction of the Syunik region ruled to discontinue the
litigation on `bandit attack on October 13, 2004 on the editorial office of
`Syunyats Yerkir’ by three mercenaries’, despite the fact that in the course
of the trial `the court proved the fact of the crime committed by one of the
defendants’. `The grounds for this court ruling were, as specified in the
resolution, the change of the situation. The main circumstance that affected
the changed situation, judging from the resolution, was the decoration of
one of the criminals with a medal, invented by organization he himself heads
and distributed in this region by kilograms’, the statement of newspaper
says. It is further said that after the start of the hearings `Syunyats
Yerkir’ had three times challenged the judge, these motions being refused
all the time, for this reason it boycotted the subsequent sessions.
On June 28, the statement says, `Syunyats Yerkir’ challenged the court
ruling with the RA Court of Appeals.
CONDOLENCES
In the early morning of July 1 in a car accident Artak Vardazarian, the
former head of `Armenpress’ news agency and the Press-Secretary of the RA
Interior Ministry, passed away. Yerevan Press Club expresses its condolences
to the family and friends of Artak Vardazarian.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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