YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 11-17, 2009
HIGHLIGHTS:
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: ELECTIONS OF NCTR MEMBERS
SECOND SEMINAR ON PERSPECTIVES OF MEDIA SELF-REGULATION IN ARMENIA
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REQUESTS ELUCIDATION FROM PARLIAMENT
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: ELECTIONS OF NCTR MEMBERS
On December 15, another "Press Club" show went on the air of "Yerkir Media"
TV company. The cycle is produced under Yerevan Press Club project,
supported by the Open Society Institute. The guests of the program host, YPC
President Boris Navasardian were Artak Davtian, Chairman of the RA National
Assembly Standing Commission on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport
Issues, and Anna Israelian, observer of "Aravot" daily. The discussion
centered on the elections of members of National Commission on Television
and Radio by the Armenian parliament on December 9.
The next "Press Club" show will be aired on "Yerkir Media" on December 22,
at 21.15.
SECOND SEMINAR ON PERSPECTIVES OF MEDIA SELF-REGULATION IN ARMENIA
On December 12-13 in Aghveran the second seminar on "The Perspectives of
Media Self-Regulation in Armenia" was held. The event was organized by
Yerevan Press Club under a project supported by the Office of OSCE
Representative on Freedom of the Media (the first seminar took place in the
end of October – see YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 23-29, 2009).
The event was attended by the members of Media Ethics Observatory (MEO),
heads, representatives of media and professional associations, who supported
the YPC initiative of establishing a media self-regulation system in
Armenia. As it has been reported, the MEO was found on March 10, 2007 (see
YPC Weekly Newsletter, March 9-15, 2007). The mission of MEO consists in
considering the complaints-appeals regarding the violation of the Code of
Conduct of Media Representatives and rendering judgments on them. Lately,
the initiative was joined by "Yerkir", "Spitaki Lusardzak" (Spitak),
"Tufashkhari Arorian" (Artik) newspapers and "Syuni" TV company (Sisian).
Thus, as of today, the Code of Conduct and its addendum, the Declaration on
Election and Referendum Coverage Principles, are signed by 41 entities,
representing 44 Armenian media. The initiative is supported by 8
journalistic associations.
At the second seminar in Aghveran the initiative members approved the
Regulations of MEO, considered the principles of rotation of MEO members.
Among other issues, the event centered on the discussion of international
trends of media self-regulation systems; the acute problems of journalism
ethics in Armenia; the protection of children’s rights in the scope of
professional guidelines; the issue of public awareness on media
self-regulation mechanisms.
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REQUESTS ELUCIDATION FROM PARLIAMENT
On December 15 RA Constitutional Court started the hearings on the
application of "A1+" TV company founder, "Meltex" LLC, regarding the
compliance of Point 1 of Article 204’28 of the RA Civil Procedure Code ("The
Competences of the Court in Case of Revision") with the Main Law. As it has
been reported, in the application, lodged on August 19, 2009, "A1+" founder
stated that the abovementioned Point enables the court to confirm the
previous judgment on a case without securing the filed suit on
reconsideration on the ground of new circumstances (see YPC Weekly
Newsletter, September 3-10, 2009). Namely this provision made a basis for
the RA Court of Cassation to decline on February 19, 2009 the demand of
"A1+" founder to reconsider the two rulings of the Court of Cassation (of
February 27 and April 23, 2004) on suits of "Meltex" LLC versus National
Commission on Television and Radio under new circumstances in the case. A
new circumstance became the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
of June 17, 2008, recognizing the refusals to grant "A1+" a broadcast
license to be a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i.e., of the right of
the applicant to freely impart information and ideas.
RA National Assembly provided the Constitutional Court with a written
response which was not secured. At the session of December 15 the
Constitutional Court stated that in September 2009, in another case, Point 1
of Article 204’28 of the RA Civil Procedure Code was recognized
contradicting to the Main Law. The Court granted the National Assembly with
some time for preparing an elucidation why the provision incompliant with
the Constitution is still prescribed by the Code.
The next session will take place on February 23, 2010.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
