INTERNEWS CONSIDERS PRETERM AMENDMENTS TO LAW ON TELEVISION AND RADIO PROPOSED BY GOVERNMENT
Noyan Tapan
Se p 10, 2008
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The study of grounding of a new
RA bill On Making Amendments to the RA Law On Television and Radio
submitted to RA NA’s discussion on RA government’s initiative shows
that the adoption of the bill is preterm. This was mentioned in the
Information Right and Policy Center of the Internews NGO of media
support.
According to the Center, the adoption of the bill will not only be a
source of legal uncertainty, but also will endanger entrance of new
participants to radio and television market though licensing. It was
mentioned that it is unreasonable to consider provision of licences
"temporary and useless," as digitalizing their broadcasting by licence
holders at the very start of the digitalization process can be a
compulsory condition for providing licences.
"Therefore, we consider that economic entities will have a possibility
to decide on their own whether it is worthy to apply for a licence and
whether investments’ returnability and possibility to gain profit are
real: the latter will proceed from the principle of free market and
will not hinder normal development of media," Center’s conclusion read.
Taking into consideration the strategic importance of the sphere
of bill’s regulation, as well as the circumstance that introduction
of digital telecommunication as a sphere of cooperation between RA
and EU is specially mentioned in the European Neighborhood program,
the Center thinks that initiating public discussions and deep study
of the latter’s use by civil society becomes very important.