"THE ISSUE IS BEYOND AMALYAN’S COMPETENCE"
A1+
[08:44 pm] 13 July, 2007
"The Public Commission on Television and Radio (PCTR) regulates the
transmission field and makes it compliant with laws. The PCTR is not
a political body.
It is upon the National Assembly to terminate licensing process,"
"Intenews"NGO Legal Service head David Sadukhchyan told A1+.
"The commission isn’t entitled to set norms, it must apply the existing
norms," said David Sadukhchyan in regard to the PCTR Chairman Grigor
Amalyan’s statement.
To remind, Amalyan had announced that the issue of granting licences to
analogical TV Companies might be reconsidered in view of digitization.
Sandukhchyan said that the programme of digitization is still
under consideration. A number of organisations have come up with
proposals. One of them proposed transmission of two and more TV
stations via one channel, i.e. both anological and digital TV Companies
should be broadcast simultaneously.
"Termination of anological licencing implies great changes to the
laws. Under the law licencing tenders must be announced at least once
a year," he said.
It is due to mention that the commission hasn’t held tenders since 2004
because of the absence of free frequencies. Neither did it announce
tenders for radio frequencies though according to the commission
there are six free radio frequencies
"If I were Amalyan I would tell people that the question is beyond
my competence and send them to relevant bodies."