Armenia: "Restrictive" foreign media bill fails

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website, Washington, D.C.,
3 Jul 07

Excerpt from report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website on 3 July

The Armenian parliament has failed to pass a bill that would have
placed severe restrictions on foreign broadcast media, particularly
RFE/RL [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty].

The legislation would have banned foreign broadcasts on Armenian public
television and radio and heavily taxed their retransmission on private
stations.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had said
the proposals, which passed its first reading on June 29, amounted to a
"ban on RFE/RL" and could have made Armenia’s March 2008 presidential
elections less free and fair.

The measure didn’t pass in today’s second and final reading because
opposition, independent, and even some pro-government lawmakers blocked
a quorum by boycotting two separate votes.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, had called the legislative package a
potential blow to media freedom in general.

But today’s failed vote in parliament, where just enough lawmakers
boycotted the vote to prevent a quorum, means the government must start
over if it wants to try again to pass the legislation. That involves
redrafting the proposals and resubmitting them again for a new first
reading.

Victor Dalakian, an independent member of parliament, was one of the
more outspoken critics of the legislation introduced by the government.

"The minority proved that quality is more important than quantity, and
this would be a lesson for the parliamentary majority, that it should
respect one of the most important rights: liberty," Dalakian told
RFE/RL.

But it wasn’t just the minority that doomed the draft legislation.

It didn’t pass in today’s second and final reading because opposition,
independent, and even some pro-government lawmakers blocked a quorum by
boycotting two separate votes.

In the first attempt, only 64 votes were cast (63 for, none against,
one abstention) in the 131-member parliament. In the second try, 65
votes were cast (63 for, none against, two abstentions).

Both fell short of the 66 votes necessary for a quorum.

The votes came one day after the U.S. State Department weighed in. On
July 2, following a question during a press briefing, the State
Department issued a statement in which it suggested the proposed
legislation was unlikely to further Armenia’s "stated desire for
continued democratization, particularly in the wake of the May
parliamentary elections that marked a step forward even as they
reflected the need for further improvements toward democratic
standards."

[Passage omitted: Demonstrations on 2 July]

Speaker Tigran Torosian and other officials had argued that the
legislation would actually not have affected RFE/RL broadcasts. But
that position, given the legislation’s wording, left observers both
inside and outside the country puzzled.

That’s because the legislation clearly spelled out sharp disincentives
for private Armenian radio stations to carry foreign broadcasters’
programs. They would have had to pay more than 200 US dollars in taxes
each time they retransmitted a program produced by a foreign media
organization.

That is about 70 times more than broadcasters must pay for a locally
made program.