YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
JULY 3-9, 2009
HIGHLIGHTS:
DEPUTIES FROM "HERITAGE" FACTION PROPOSE TO CREATE A COMMISSION ON "A1+" TV
COMPANY ISSUE
JOURNALISTS BARRED OUT FROM THE CONGRESS OF WRITERS UNION
CORRESPONDENT OF "CHORRORD ISHKHANUTIUN" PARDONED
DEPUTIES FROM "HERITAGE" FACTION PROPOSE TO CREATE A COMMISSION ON "A1+" TV
COMPANY ISSUE
On July 3 the legislative initiative of deputies from "Heritage" faction
Styopa Safarian and Anahit Bakhshian was submitted to the RA National
Assembly. The initiative is to create an interim parliamentary commission,
on the ground of provisions of RA Constitution and Statutes of the RA
National Assembly, to deal with the fulfillment of requirements of several
resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on Armenia.
It concerns the PACE Resolutions 1374(2004), 1609(2008), 1620(2008),
1643(2009), and especially, the last Resolution 1677(2009) "The Functioning
of Democratic Institutions in Armenia" (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, June
19-25, 2009). The necessity on holding an open, fair and transparent
broadcast licensing competition and executing the judgment of the European
Court of Human Rights of June 17, 2008 on the case concerning the denial of
a broadcasting license to the "A1+" TV company is emphasized in the
documents. The draft law, particularly, motivates the creation of a interim
parliamentary commission by the fact that the requirements of the
abovementioned Resolutions on the broadcast renewal of "A1+" remain
unfulfilled till this very day, while the others are partially or fully
implemented.
According to the proposal of deputies from "Heritage" party, the following
three main tasks are set before the interim commission: the promotion of a
legislative initiative aiming to hold an open, fair and transparent
broadcast licensing competition, on the basis of the report made by an
independent CoE spectrum analyst; the examination and the revision of
legislative regulations preventing the implementation of the judgment of the
European Court of Human Rights on the case of "A1+"; the preparation of a
conclusion and its presentation to the RA National Assembly, based on the
acquisition and analysis of information on the circumstances preventing the
fulfillment of the PACE Resolutions requirements on holding a competition
and the execution of the European Court judgment.
The draft law also notes that the activities of the interim commission are
supposed to be terminated in the end of October 2009, in order to ensure the
fulfillment of the aforesaid demands of PACE Resolutions before the winter
session of the Parliamentary Assembly of CoE and the forerunning session of
Monitoring Committee on the Honoring of Obligations and Commitments by
Member-State of Council of Europe.
JOURNALISTS BARRED OUT FROM THE CONGRESS OF WRITERS UNION
On July 4 representatives of a number of media were barred out from the
building of the Writers Union of Armenia, where the 15th Congress of the
organization was being held. According to the press, the journalists were
deprived of the right to cover this event on the initiative of the Chairman
of Writers Union of Armenia Levon Ananian. Thus, the established procedure
of accreditation was not the same for all media and did not ensure equal
conditions for them. Meanwhile, the organizers had to take into account the
fact that the elections of the head of the Writers Union had attracted a
great public interest long before the Congress.
A similar situation happened at the 13th Congress of the Writers Union of
Armenia. On May 19, 2001, when the Chairman of the Writers Union was to be
elected, Abgar Apinian, the Secretary of the Board acting at that time,
demanded the media to leave the session room. Having not heard any weighty
arguments to substantiate the demand, the journalists refused to go. And
when one of the journalists started taking photos of the ballot box, Abgar
Apinian snatched the camera out of her hands and smashed it (see YPC Weekly
Newsletter, May 19-25, 2001). It should be mentioned that today Abgar
Apinian is in opposition to the present leadership of the Writers Union of
Armenia. In other words, despite the change of leadership, the consistency
of traditions remains…
CORRESPONDENT OF "CHORRORD ISHKHANUTIUN" PARDONED
On July 3 the RA Criminal Court of Appeal withdrew the judgment of court of
general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan on
correspondent of "Chorrord Ishkhanutiun" newspaper Gohar Vezirian and
applied to her the amnesty. The amnesty was announced on June 19, 2009 by
the ruling of RA National Assembly on the RA President’s proposal. As it has
been reported, on May 14, 2009 Gohar Vezirian was sentenced to a fine in the
amount of 350,000 AMD (about $ 950) for disrespect to court (see YPC Weekly
Newsletter, May 15-21, 2009).
As lawyer of Gohar Vezirian Hovik Arsenian told to YPC, this judgment was
appealed with the Criminal Court of Appeal. After the amnesty was granted a
new application was submitted to the second court jurisdiction in which
Gohar Vezirian asked to pardon her.
According to Hovik Arsenian, the amnesty should also expand on free lance
journalist Gagik Shamshian, accused to a similar penalty for the same crime
on April 17, 2009 by court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and
Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan. It should be noted that the Criminal
Court of Appeal has sustained the judgment of June 15, 2009 of court of
first jurisdiction on the case of Gagik Shamshian (see YPC Weekly
Newsletter, June 12-18, 2009).
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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