TV STATION WINS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION RULING
Media Helping Media
Friday, 04 July 2008
UK
News and features – Europe
Staff at A1+ in YerevanIn April 2002, the Armenian government took
A1+ off the air. The station was the most watched independent TV news
channel in Armenia at that time.
When the A1+ signal ended, thousands gathered on the streets of
Yerevan to protest. Those protests lasted for more than a week.
It was a show of public support that convinced the A1+ director, Mesrop
Movsesyan, that he must find other ways to continue delivering news
to the people of Armenia. He said he knew then that the withdrawal of
the licence didn’t mean that his team of journalists had to be silent.
"The sheer scale of the public protest, when ordinary people realised
that freedom of expression was being attacked through the silencing
of A1+, persuaded us that we had a duty to continue to operate as a
news organisation, even though our transmitters had been turned off."
Movsesyan set up a news agency, a newspaper and websites in Armenian,
Russian and English, in order to continue to provide coverage of
events in Yerevan and the rest of the country.
TV news reports continued to be produced by A1+, but instead of being
broadcast from Yerevan, they were distributed to affiliates in every
region of the small, landlocked country. The affiliate network was
unaffected by the government ruling that silenced A1+.
Mesrop MovsesyanSince it lost its licence in 2002, A1+ has reapplied
for a licence to broadcast a dozen times and each time it has been
refused. In 2003, Movsesyan took the case to the European Court of
Human Rights and a lengthy investigation followed.
During that investigation, the Armenian government said A1+ lost its
licence because it presented a poor application when the competition
to broadcast took place. Ministers in Yerevan submitted evidence to
the European Court to support the decision to close the TV station.
Announcing the decision in favour of A1+, the Council of Europe
Secretary General, Terry Davis, said it was "a victory for freedom
of expression".
He went on to explain that the ruling could have a wide-reaching
impact.
"It should also serve as a lesson to all governments inclined to
arbitrary interpretations of Article 10 of the European Convention
on Human Rights, which guarantees this essential freedom."
The Council of Europe’s Ministerial Committee will now monitor
Armenia’s implementation of the court decision.
Movsesyan said the court decision merely provides grounds for the
station to bid on available broadcast frequencies. A new tender is
planned for the autumn, when the five-year licence term for a number
of TV companies expires.