ARMENIA IN NEW TV CONTROVERSY
By Gegham Vardanian

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
;s=f&o =346723&apc_state=henh
Sept 17 2008
UK

Opposition station hopes Council of Europe will fight for its right
to broadcast.

Government critics in Armenia say a small amendment to a new
broadcasting law is being used to keep the country’s leading opposition
news channel off the air.

Supporters of the A1+ television station, which ceased transmission in
2002 when broadcasting licenses were renewed, are hoping to win the
backing of the Council of Europe, CoE, which has already criticised
the Armenian government’s treatment of the channel.

The new law on TV and radio which parliament passed on September 10
commits the country to moving completely to digital broadcasting by
2015, with parallel analogue and digital transmission from 2010 on.

The government is offering currently active TV stations a chance to
bid for new digital broadcasting licenses from 2010.

The catch, as far as A1+ is concerned, is that the current licenses
are being automatically extended until June 2010, which means that
no other companies will have a chance to enter the market before then.

A1+ was a popular source of alternative news to the pro-government
line, which now dominates the electronic media in Armenia. Its removal
from the airwaves sparked large protests.

Economics minister Nerses Yeritsian, presenting the new bill to
parliament, denied that there was any political agenda behind it or
any link to A1+, saying that postponing the issuing of new licenses
was "the most fair and open mechanism".

"After 2010, when the current licenses expire, everyone will receive an
equal opportunity to take part in a competition and win a broadcasting
frequency," said Yeritsian.

Opposition members of parliament dismissed the minister’s arguments.

"This is an underhand way of stripping A1+ of its chances of going on
air and taking part in a license competition," said Zaruhi Postanjian
of the opposition Heritage Party. "This is being done so that the
market of existing TV companies won’t be extended to include one
more company."

A1+ had hoped to regain its broadcasting rights following a ruling in
its favour issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
in June.

The court ruled that Armenia had breached article 10 of the European
Convention on Human Rights by denying A1+ a license. On September 17,
the court’s decision was sent to the CoE’s ministerial committee,
which will issue specific recommendations to Armenia, and monitor
their implementation every six months.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, in a
resolution on Armenia agreed on June 25, also referred to A1+ and
called for the national licensing authority "to now ensure an open,
fair and transparent licensing procedure".

When Claudia Luciani, director general for political affairs and
cooperation at the CoE, met the speaker of Armenia’s parliament
Tigran Torosian on September 11 she criticised the way the bill had
been passed the day before.

"The bill was adopted in haste, without any European expertise,"
she said. "It is not a step towards implanting the resolutions of
PACE but a step backwards, which means that both the government
and the national assembly have not taken the proposals in the PACE
resolutions seriously."

Even some pro-government supporters have failed to back the amended
broadcasting law. Armen Ashotian, a parliamentary deputy with the
governing Republican Party and chairman of parliament’s commission on
science, education, culture and youth, abstained on the first reading
of the bill and did not vote in the second and third readings.

"I am not sure that the technical advantages which are meant to
justify the law outweigh the political risks," Ashotian told IWPR.

A statement by five journalistic organisations called for the decision
to be overturned, saying it had "nothing to do with defending
the interests of broadcasters, consumers and the state, nor with
"guaranteeing equal opportunities and preventing market shocks" –
arguments the government has used to justify its amendments.

Movses Hakobian, a legal consultant to the media development
organisation Internews, said the entire law was conceptually flawed.

"There’s no definition of the transition to digital broadcasting,"
said Hakobian. "Even the justification [document] for the bill points
out that it’s currently impossible to make an accurate assessment of
the technical requirements this will impose on the state, its citizens
and the broadcasters, or of what the anticipated costs are. They have
no idea what the cost will be – what’s going to happen if the cost
comes to more than the budget can afford? What will we do?"

Minister Yeritsian responded that the government was seeking the help
of outside experts to ensure that the switch-over works. He said,
"We have a programme, but there are gaps and pitfalls. We have asked
for an international audit to be conducted on this and we need serious
international expertise."

Mesrop Movsisian, the director of A1+, believes that the whole bill
was designed to keep his company off the airwaves.

"It shows that the authorities are so frightened by the possibility
of suddenly hearing an alternative voice that they are once again
resorting to suppressing free speech in Armenia," he said.

Gegham Vardanian is a journalist with Internews in Yerevan.