ROBERT KOCHARIAN CAN’T PERSUADE THE EUROPEANS
Anna Israelian

Aravot.am
22 June 06

The OSCE representative of the Press freedom Miklosh Harashti affirmed
yesterday that TV companies don’t provide for various opinions.

Robert Kocharian produced a list to the head of monitoring group of
the CE Ministers’ committee Roland Vegener on 10 of June for proving
that deputies from the opposition make use of TV broadcast without
any obstacles. Mr.

Kocharian tried to oppose in this way to the affirmation that there
is no various opinions in Television after closing "A1+". But the
OSCE representative of the Freedom of the Press Miklosh Harashti who
has arrived our country by the invitation of the Foreign Ministry of
Armenia affirmed that various opinions in Armenia were limited only
by printed press. Â"We found out that there were complete various
opinions in the printed press. But we also found out that the variety
of opinions weren’t provided in more influential press like TVÂ". He
mentioned that there was a lack of Â"factual and objective" news and
comments about public events. The OSCE representative of the freedom
of the press didn’t answer to Â"AzatutiunÂ" b/s question that how he
explained though organizations which seek for the issues of the freedom
of the press and other international structures speak of the Â"A1+Â"
problem in their annual reports summoning the Armenian authorities to
solve this problem, but that summon is ignored. Mr. Harashti informed
instead that all his interlocutors / he has met with Robert Kocharian,
Grigor Amalian, Armen Haroutiunian and other officials/ have themselves
initiated to solve the Â"A1+Â" problem. Â"This can be considered as
the obvious example of obstacles, difficulties, omissions of licensing
process,"- Mr. Harashti explained in this way the refuse of allocating
frequency to Â"A1+Â". – I’ll return to the licensing process in detail
in my account and will make proposals about it".

Miklosh Harashti also informed that they would recommend improving
Â"monitoring partÂ" of the activities of the National Commission of
TV and Radio that is to control the activities of those companies,
which have been allocated by frequency.

OSCE representative also considered important prevention of
monopolization of the TV air. It is known, that though the correspond
legislative obstacle 3 TV companies factually belong to Bagrat
Sargsian, two belong to Hrant Vardanian. Miklosh Harashti noticed;
Â"It won’t be enough to mention in the changes of the law about
Television and Radio that a license must be given to a company,
but we must also mention, that it mustn’t be allowed more than one
TV company to the same group of ownersÂ".

He also spoke about the draft of spreading printed press by which
it is foreseen to use an order of license of spreading company,
mentioning that he was against that approach. According to the
OSCE representative it is very important for the parliament members
to realize; the sphere of spreading the press must be as free and
competitive as the main press is.

He mentioned as a progress that cases of violence and pursuit
used against journalists haven’t been recorded in Armenia in last
years. The present journalists opposed to this observation reminding
Mr. Harashti attacks on journalists in 2004. Mr. Harashti elucidated
that he meant that Â"mass accidents don’t happen to the journalists,
who are organized by the government" and "there is no projected
campaign against journalists".

–Boundary_(ID_fOnD20+6QSzVs8G IG9PbHg)–