STORM IN A CUP OF WATER

Hayots Ashkharh Daily – Armenia
29 June 07

Yesterday the National Assembly took up the discussion of the second
issue included in the agenda of the extraordinary sitting – that is
the draft law on the amendments in the law on "TV and Radio" and the
law on "State Duty"

As it was expected "Orinats Yerkir" and "Heritage" parties were
particularly striking with the activeness they demonstrated during
the discussion.

>From Orinats Yerkir faction MP Hovhannes Margaryan arrested the
attention of the participants, mentioning in his speech that the bill
is aimed at banning the broadcast of "Radio Liberty" and depriving
Armenians of the right to get proper information from the only true
information source.

Zaruhi Postanjyan was the activist of "Heritage" party. The latter,
with her abstruse Armenian was trying to affirm that "Radio Liberty"
is a Mass Media of an exclusive social significance, as it formulates
public opinion. Raffi Hovhannisyan, expressed the collective opinion
of "Heritage" faction and underscored that, "Today the reputation,
rating, freedom and future progress of our country is on the scale."

Unfortunately these people didn’t clarify which country’s future,
social welfare and freedom of information did they particularly
mean. The radio station that is funded by Congress should meet the
demands of the USA, shouldn’t it.

Republican Manvel Badeyan said," It is easy to understand why they do
their bests to convince the MPs and the society that the bill is aimed
at banning the broadcast of "Radio Liberty". Even Soviet Union failed
to completely thwart the broadcast. Had it been aimed at banning
"Radio Liberty", we could easily perform it with the acting law;
there would be no need for amendments and supplementations.

This draft law obliges the leadership of the Public TV and Radio to
be satisfied with the financial means allocated by the tax-payers
and not to give the air time to the foreigners for rent."

MP Armen Ashotyan shed more light on the matter. He said, "The draft
law has nothing to do with the freedom of speech and it translates
the state policy. The National Security Concept clearly highlights
the direction of providing informational security.

To be honest, at present various international structures and foreign
agencies are more concerned about the issue of building civic society
in our country. Matters took such a turn that they have even drafted
a budget to build civic society in our country, whereas the latter
is a state task. And there is no room here for political speculations."

Secretary of the Republican faction Samvel Nikoyan summed up the
attitude of the latter," I regret that most of our colleagues
interpreted the draft law from the point of view of the logic of
broken phone. No one has the right to criticize those who are trying
to protect national values. On the contrary they should welcome this
attitude. No one should look for stipulations, when the government
and the National Assembly is trying to regulate the activity of Public
Radio and TV."

Secretary of "Bargavach Hayastan" faction Aram Safaryan confirmed
that BHP supports the draft law and doesn’t justify the political
speculations. "The bill is aimed at making corrections in the
guidelines of the Public Radio and TV.

I don’t think the Public Radio and TV stations in European or any
other small and big countries would have agreed to sell their airtime
to other Mass Media.

The amount of the state duty envisaged by the draft law is quite
acceptable for serious foreign broadcasters and significantly low as
compared with the level of European tariffs."

In his extraordinary speech regarding these issues, Speaker of
the National Assembly Tigran Torosyan emphasized the political and
juridical pretext of the opinions heard.

"You spoke about the freedom of speech, about the violation of human
rights, about spoiling relations with the USA and many other issues
that has nothing to do with the problem discussed. But it would
have been better to leave aside inflamed passions and touch upon
the bill. Unfortunately some people swerved from this direction and
yielded to provocations, insulted their colleagues and stigmatized
the National Assembly."

Speaker of the National Assembly said the pro-opposition activists
didn’t even try to comprehend the demands of the bill. "I’m sure "Radio
Liberty" has nothing to do with this draft law as the latter is not
a broadcaster and hasn’t got a corresponding license. I have no idea
who is the author of this provocation, who tried to convince others
that the bill is aimed at closing "Radio Liberty". The problem is to
decide whether Public Radio and TV have the right to sell airtime to
other broadcasting companies or not.

I believe only the private radio and TV stations should be granted
this right. And if some people are concerned about the little budget
of the Public TV and Radio stations then I can only offer them to
participate in the discussion of the budget allocated to the latter
in three months. But, the interesting thing is, before the same people
used to speculate the little budget of the Public Radio and TV. Let’s
avoid creating artificial obstacles in the National Assembly, and
creating storm in a cup of water. Let’s protect the honor and rating
of our parliament."