DEPUTIES REVOLT
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[02:00 pm] 27 September, 2006
The National Assembly finished the discussion of the drafts about
"Amendments to the RA Law on Television and Radio and Amendments to
the RA Regulations of the National Commission on Television and Radio"
which was represented by the RA Government.
During the discussions which lasted two days the oppositional deputies
called on everyone to vote down the draft. According to Viktor
Dallakyan, the law gives punitive functions to the National Committee
of TV and Radio against private TV Companies. And Arshak Sadoyan
announced that the draft is "anti constitutional, wrong and criminal".
Gegham Manoukyan spoke on behalf of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction. He
introduced himself as a person who has worked in the television field
and called on all the deputies to reject the draft. He wondered why
they try to make amendments in such a rush, taking into account the
fact that Constitution demanded to change the staff of the National
Committee of TV and Radio and not the law itself. The ARF deputy
also assumed the draft gives the monopoly of TV commercials to the
Public Television.
NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan was perhaps the only one who called on
everyone to vote for the draft saying "Let’s adopt it, and amend
it later".
By the way, in his final speech Minister of Justice David Haroutyunyan
too asked to vote for the draft claiming that there was no rush. "If
we tried to adopt it in a rush, we would organize the second hearing
in the special session at once".