YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 22-28, 2010
HIGHLIGHTS:
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS AND DEMOCRATIC REFORMS
THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE FOR ARMENIAN BROADCASTERS
"HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH": DESPITE THE DECISION OF EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN
RIGHTS, "A1+" REMAINS WITHOUT A LICENSE
PROTEST ACTIONS AGAINST THE JUDGMENT OF NIKOL PASHINIAN
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS AND DEMOCRATIC REFORMS
On January 26, 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 Edgar Hovhannisian, Chairman of
Political-Ideological Committee of Youth Organization of Republican Party of
Armenia, Karen Karapetian, Chairman of the Armenian Pan-National Movement
Youth Union, Artur Ghazarian, Board member of ARF "Dashnaktsutiun" Youth
Union. The discussion centered on the role of youth organizations in the
country’s politics and public life, and democratic reforms.
The next "Press Club" show will be aired on "Yerkir Media" on February 2, at
21.15.
THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE FOR ARMENIAN BROADCASTERS
During this week an Italian expert group, which is supposed to assist
Armenia in switchover to digital broadcasting, was in Yerevan upon the
invitation of the RA Ministry of Economy. According to preliminary
agreements on a governmental level, Italy will assist Armenia to solve the
technical, legal and economic issues related to digitalization and will
consult the national experts on a number of problems dealing with the
process. In particular, the urgent problem of holding broadcast licensing
competitions (suspended for two years) is to be settled. As it has been
reported, the moratorium on holding broadcast competitions in Armenia was
namely introduced on the plea of elaborating the concept for digitalization
(see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 5-11, 2008).
For one and a half years the Interdepartmental Commission on TV and Radio
Digitalization in Armenia, established for the elaboration of the concept,
managed to prepare a document not responding to any of the key questions
related to this complex process, including the organization of competitions,
which are supposed to be announced on July 20, 2010 (see YPC Weekly
Newsletters, October 16-22, 2009 and October 23-29, 2009). Now, within the
remaining few months, the Italian experts will try to help the
Interdepartmental Commission and the Ministry of Economy to make up for the
lost time. It should be noted that one of the main problems of
digitalization in Armenia is ensuring the pluralism of the content and of
the ownership in broadcast sphere. This is emphasized in a number of
international documents, including the ones that assess the situation with
television and radio in Armenia (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 30 –
November 5, 2009). Meanwhile Italy is considered to be a problematic country
in Europe in terms of ownership concentration and political control on
broadcast media. Hopefully, the Italian experts will contribute not to the
replication of the situation in their country, but to the avoidance of
negative process in this sphere, taking into account their own experience.
The first results of the consultations will appear soon, when the amendments
package to the broadcast legislation, drafted in cooperation with the
Italians, is presented. Many things will become clear then:
"HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH": DESPITE THE DECISION OF EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN
RIGHTS, "A1+" REMAINS WITHOUT A LICENSE
On January 20 the international "Human Rights Watch" organization released
its annual report on human rights practices in over 90 countries of the
world in 2009.
In the section, dealing with Armenia, the situation with media freedom is
presented. In particular, despite the decision of the European Court of
Human Rights of June 2008, finding Article 10 of the European Convention on
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in violation with relation to "A1+",
the TV company has not been able to resume broadcasting due to the two year
moratorium of broadcast licensing competitions (introduced in September
2008), the report notes. According to the report authors, the amendments of
April 2009 to the RA Law "On Television and Radio" did not ensure the
pluralism in the broadcast regulatory body. The report also lists the
incidents with journalists. Particularly, the assaults of: Argishti
Kivirian, Coordinator of ARMENIA Today news agency (April 30, 2009), Nver
Mnatsakanian, author and host of "Perspective" program cycle of "Shant" TV
company (May 6, 2009), and Edik Baghdasarian, Head of "Investigative
Journalists" NGO (November 17, 2008). "No conclusive investigations followed
any of these incidents", the report states. "Human Rights Watch" mentions
the cases of impeding the professional activities of journalists on the day
of elections to Council of Elderly of Yerevan on May 31, 2009, as well as
the early release – for health reasons – of Arman Babajanian, Chief Editor
of "Zhamanak" daily. In 2006 Arman Babajanian was sentenced to 3.5 years of
imprisonment for document fraud to evade military service.
PROTEST ACTIONS AGAINST THE JUDGMENT OF NIKOL PASHINIAN
A number of public and international organizations, political unions made
statements, considering the conviction of Nikol Pashinian, Chief Editor of
"Haykakan Zhamanak" daily, as political persecution. As it has been
reported, on January 19 court of general jurisdiction of Shengavit community
of Yerevan found Nikol Pashinian guilty in mass riots and sentenced him to
seven years of imprisonment (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, January 14-21,
2010).
>From January 19 -24 an original protest action was held on the air of "GALA"
TV company of Gyumri. On these days the programs of the TV company were
periodically interrupted by a photo of the Chief Editor of "Haykakan
Zhamanak", appearing on the TV screen. As "GALA" TV company has informed,
currently a cycle of open debates is in preparation. The discussions will be
dealing with the punishment imposed to Nikol Pashinian and will be open for
those who wish to take part.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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