Armenian politician critical of Venice Commission’s media reform findings

Arminfo
25 Jul 05

YEREVAN

“We are perplexed by some provisions contained in the conclusions made
by the working group of the [Council of Europe’s] Venice Commission
regarding constitutional amendment proposals,” the chairman of the
Democracy public organization, Vardan Pogosyan, said in a conversation
with an Arminfo correspondent today.

He emphasized that the agreement between the Venice Commission and the
Armenian parliamentary delegation envisaged the involvement of the
Armenian National Assembly in forming the media-regulating bodies,
such as the Council of the Public TV and radio of Armenia [CPTRA]. He
proposed to introduce a new way of forming them, similar to how the
National Commission on Television and Radio of Armenia (NCTRA) is
formed.

Pogosyan considers the changes envisaged under the latest proposals
for constitutional reforms in forming the NCTRA as insufficient,
especially so because some members of the commission were elected
until 2011 and parliament can appoint only two representatives of the
NCTRA in 2007.

“The conclusions proposed by the Venice Commission’s working group
contradict the resolution of the Council of Europe adopted earlier,
since in response to previous suggestions by the Council of Europe
regarding the CPTRA reform, Armenian authorities used to refer to
imperfections in the Constitution,” Pogosyan said.

He expressed the confidence that the Council of Europe’s appeal to
avoid political speculation in appointing media-regulating bodies is
impossible to meet when the Council of the public TV and radio is set
up solely by the president.