NO MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT LACK OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

A1+
[07:00 pm] 26 February, 2009

With 97 for, 0 against and 1 neutral, the parliament passed the bill
on changes and additions to the RA law on "Television and Radio"
by the first reading.

This means that even the opposition deputies voted for the bill. In
fact, co-author of the bill, Deputy of the "Heritage" party Anahit
Bakhshyan announced from the NA podium that the committee praised
the bill and proposed to vote for it.

In her speech, Anahit Bakhshyan noted that the bill guarantees
freedom of the press and allows appointment of representatives of
bodies regulating broadcasts to be elected "through democratic and
transparent elections". According to Bakhshyan, the important thing
is that the president of the Commission on Television and Radio is
appointed by the RA President through a contest for a six-year term
and has a number of requirements and limits.

How will this bill solve the issue of "A1+" coming back on air, which
is one of the demands in the PACE Resolution? In response to that,
Bakhshyan said that the bill does not provide the opportunity to solve
that issue. But she informed that a bill is put into circulation by
which they propose to annul the change made in the law passed on
2008 December 10 by which there will be no tenders for television
broadcasts until January 21, 2011 due to digitalization.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress