YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
SEPTEMBER 30 – OCTOBER 6, 2005
HIGHLIGHTS:
PERSPECTIVE
INDEPENDENT CIVIL INSTITUTES MUST REFRAIN FROM ADVOCATING FOR OR AGAINST
DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO RA CONSTITUTION
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF PUBLIC TV AND RADIO COMPANY THREATENED TO PULL
THE EARS OF “AZG” OWNER
BAN ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE ADVERTISING ON RADIO AIR
ASHOT GAZAZIAN: “IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN”
“YERRORD UZH” WEEKLY CLOSED
15TH ANNIVERSARY OF “RESPUBLIKA ARMENIA” AND “HAYASTANI HANRAPETUTIUN”
RADIO “VAN” – AWARDEE OF “SIBERIAN DECIBEL”
PERSPECTIVE
INDEPENDENT CIVIL INSTITUTES MUST REFRAIN FROM ADVOCATING FOR OR AGAINST
DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO RA CONSTITUTION
The President of Armenia Robert Kocharian supported the draft of amendments
to the RA Constitution and appointed the date for the referendum – November
27, 2005. Thus, the document development process is over, and the fate of
the Main Law of the country will be decided by national ballot.
As it was noted in the statement of Yerevan Press Club, disseminated before
the third hearing of the draft amendments at the Parliament, “the public of
Armenia has been insufficiently involved in the constitutional reform
process; attention was not duly paid to a number of alternative proposals
made, as a result of which certain provisions of the draft continue to arise
serious concerns” (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 9-15,
2005).
After that several editorial revisions were made, also as proposed by YPC.
Yet, in the most principal issues of concern to the journalistic community
(see YPC Weekly Newsletter, August 25 – September 1, 2005, July 8-14, 2005,
September 9-15, 2005) and referring mostly to the formation of independent
bodies regulating the broadcast media sphere, the Armenian lawmakers and the
President have, in fact, declined the proposed amendments.
Yerevan Press Club maintains that the Constitution must not define detailed
procedures for the appointment (election) of bodies, regulating specific
spheres. Instead it was proposed to stipulate in the Main Law the
participation of the RA National Assembly in the formation of independent
(not constituting a part of the executive power) structures, created on
temporary or permanent basis to regulate spheres of particular public
significance. The Constitution in force gives an exhaustive description of
the function of the NA and it excludes its involvement in the formation of
similar structures. This has repeatedly caused dead-end situations and
became a subject of criticism on behalf of local and foreign experts.
However, the draft amendments did not give a solution to the problem;
exception was made only for the participation of the NA in the appointment
of the RA Human Rights Defender and the members of the broadcast regulatory
body. It was initially proposed that the latter should be nominated by the
President and approved by the Parliament.
The journalistic associations insisted that if the constitutional reform
stipulated the involvement of the legislators in the formation of regulatory
bodies only in certain spheres, the procedure should then be turned from
head to feet: the members of this structure should be nominated by the
Parliament and be approved by the President. However, here, too, the authors
of the draft decided to make only partial concessions, proposing an option
when half of the member would be elected by the Parliament and half –
appointed by the President.
YPC and its partners again displayed their readiness for compromise: let
this be 50/50, but the procedure should apply not to one, but to two bodies,
regulating both public and private broadcasting (in Armenia these are the
Council of Public TV and Radio Company, and the National Commission on
Television and Radio), since all the documents of the Council of Europe on
the commitments of Armenia to the CE referred not to the “body”, but “the
bodies” that regulate broadcasting.
The further developments showed the invincible affection of the Armenian
authorities towards “the singular”, moreover, they rejected the last,
compromise proposal by YPC: to make a distinct specification in the
Constitution that the body to be established, since it is one and only,
should regulate both private and public broadcasting. Thus, it became
obvious that “the independent body” is envisaged solely for the regulation
of the activities of private broadcasters, and the Public TV and Radio
Company remains the patrimony of the President of the country, who forms the
Council at his own discretion.
While the rationale that Armenian authorities have behind this story is
transparent – to retain maximum control over broadcast media, the approval
given to the appropriate provision in the draft amendments by the Council of
Europe Venice Commission is not quite in the line with the context of CE
demands on Armenia fulfilling its commitments. These commitments, in
particular, called for the transformation of state broadcasting into public.
Meanwhile it has become clear – long ago and for everybody – that under the
present procedure of forming the Council of Public TV and Radio Company it
is not a transformation that we have but a pure change of the label. And the
constitutional reform came to change nothing in this regard.
Besides, the reports of the CE monitoring groups repeatedly raised the issue
about the soonest change of the composition of the National Commission on
Television and Radio (meaning that this body discredited itself by having
ousted from the air the independent “A1+” TV company). However, the
transitional provisions of the current constitutional amendments stipulate
that the present NCTR members retain their positions until the official end
of their terms. Therefore, the membership proportion, as provided for by the
amendments (even given its very limited independence), will be fully
realized no sooner than in 6 years! Meanwhile, the National Commission will
hold many more “impartial” broadcast licensing competitions! Yet, even this
circumstance caused no objections on behalf of the Venice Commission…
Such examples of partial modifications and negligence for constructive
proposals in the process of constitutional reform can be quoted from other
spheres, too. Thus, it is strange to hear the opinions of representatives of
different international organizations saying that the draft takes into
account the expectations of the public at large and the work on the document
was held in an open atmosphere.
Anyhow, the final text of the draft Constitution with amendments is ready.
On the one hand, it contains provisions that are indisputably progressive.
On the other, some of its sections are in no way compliant with the demands
of the present stage of democratic development and the level of political
thinking, proper to a country aspiring for Europe. Unfortunately, it cannot
be said that the society is offered an unequivocal choice between past and
future. The decision to be made by each voter is rather political than
contextual: not so much for better or worse Constitution, but rather for or
against the present authorities, for whom the success of the referendum is a
guarantee of success in the upcoming elections, and the failure is an
alarming signal on the eve of 2007-2008 election cycle and significant
decline of international reputation.
In this regard it seems that the most correct behavior for independent civil
structures of Armenia is to refrain from advocating either for or against
the amendments. Any such appeal, whether we want it or not, will mean
supporting certain political forces. This is hardly the mission of
independent public organizations or the press. The task of the latter is to
achieve utmost public awareness, to help it impartially comprehend the
essence of the amendments proposed, in realization so its objective
interests and informed voting. Also – in ensuring the free display of
people’s will and fair results of the referendum. The solution of these
tasks, no matter what the distribution of votes on November 27 is, will
signify the victory of democracy and real progress against the sad political
practice of the past decade.
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF PUBLIC TV AND RADIO COMPANY THREATENED TO PULL
THE EARS OF “AZG” OWNER
On October 5 “Azg” daily published an article “Is 4 mln. USD Little for
Laudation of the President?” The editorial was a response to the complaint,
voiced by “Haylur” newscast of Public Television of Armenia to the effect
that the amount, equivalent to 4 mln. USD, envisaged for PTA in draft state
budget of Armenia in 2006, is very small, even in comparison with other CIS
countries. To this “Azg” remarked that while 4 million USD per se is not a
very big amount, “our Public Television is not so public, and several
hundreds of people are busy with promoting the President Robert Kocharian,
his family, environment”. To confirm this, the newspaper listed the first
four reports of “Haylur” newscast on October 4. They all were dealing with
the activities of the President, the First Lady and higher officials of the
country. Only the fifth news, as “Azg” notes, was presented by the newscast
to be the relations of European Union and Turkey.
The next day, on October 6, “Aravot” daily published the opinion of the
Chairman of the Council of Public TV and Radio Company Alexan Harutiunian,
expressed in an interview to “Aravot” with regard to “Azg” piece. “I will
not answer this newspaper, I will only pull its owner’s ears”, the Chairman
of the Council of Public TV and Radio Company said.
BAN ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE ADVERTISING ON RADIO AIR
Since October 1 “Van” and “Russkoe Radio”/Radio Alfa stations of Yerevan
stopped airing commercials in foreign languages. This decision was adopted
by the National Commission on Television and Radio in accordance with
Article 5 of the RA Law “On Advertising”, which in particular stipulates:
the language of advertising is Armenian, with possible translation into
foreign languages, in a smaller typeset. Thus, the law does not actually
regulate the possibility for placing commercials in foreign languages on
radio air.
As YPC was informed by the Director of “Van” radio station Shushanik
Arevshatian, on September 27 “Van” and “Russkoe Radio” addressed a letter to
the RA Ministry of Justice, State Language Inspectorate, RA National
Assembly and National Commission on Television and Radio, asking to permit
broadcastings of Russian-language commercials during programs in Russian. No
answer to this address has been received yet.
ASHOT GAZAZIAN: “IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN”
“Vellas Print” publishing house produced a book by well-known journalist,
the correspondent of “Deutsche Welle” radio in Armenia and a member of
Yerevan Press Club Council Ashot Gazazian, titled “In the Shadow of the
Sun”. The book is written in a genre, defined by its author himself as
“Bioreport”, and represents memories, true stories and reflections about the
time, events, friends and colleagues, everything that “has stuck in the
memory”.
“YERRORD UZH” WEEKLY CLOSED
“Yerrord Uzh” weekly stopped its issuance. According to press reports, the
reasons for the closure of the weekly are financial. The Chief Editor of
“Yerrord Uzh”, published since June 2004, was Vahram Aghajanian.
15TH ANNIVERSARY OF “RESPUBLIKA ARMENIA” AND “HAYASTANI HANRAPETUTIUN”
October 9 will mark the 15th anniversary since the issuance of “Hayastani
Hanrapetutiun” and “Respublika Armenia” newspapers – the first Armenian and
Russian language official publications of independent Armenia.
Yerevan Press Club congratulates its colleagues and wishes them further
success and prosperity.
RADIO “VAN” – AWARDEE OF “SIBERIAN DECIBEL”
On September 28 – October 1 2005 in Russian city of Tomsk the Fifth Festival
of Audio Advertising “Siberian Decibel” was held, organized by “Advertisers
of Tomsk” and local “Radio Siberia” station. The competition of the festival
in 7 nominations 253 works of different radio companies and advertising
agencies of CIS were presented. One of the winners is Armenian private “Van”
radio station that received 4 awards: the first prize in “Infomercial”
category, second prize in “Public Service Announcement”, second and third
prizes in “Air Design” nomination.
It should be noted that Radio “Van” was an awardee of “Siberian Decibel”
Festival in 2001 and 2002.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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