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AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW WILL NOT BRING TANGIBLE CHANGES
[08:34 pm] 15 February, 2007
The legislative amendments carried out to meet the RA
Constitution, do not comply with the provisions of the
fundamental law of the country in reality. The
Constitution foresees new order of the formation of
the National Commission for the Television and Radio;
i.e. four members of the commission are to be elected
by the NA and the rest by the RA President.
To note, currently the NCTR members are appointed by
the RA President.
The RA Government endorsed two draft laws regulating
the broadcasting sphere. According to the Yerevan
Press Club, in case the draft laws are passed, only
four years later, in 2011, the 50:50 proportion of the
NCTR will be provided which will likely be violated in
2015 again.
By the way, in March commission will have the
following proportion 7:1 after the filling the two
vacant places of the NCTR. The point is that in case
the NA doesn’t appoint the member to the NCTR it won’t
hinder the President to fill the vacancy.
`Thus, the draft bill implies that we shall have 7
members instead of 8 and they will be appointed by the
president’, Boris Navasardyan, president of the
Yerevan Press Club, assumes. As for the breach of the
2015 proportion, in Boris Navasardyan’s words, `It may
be an arithmetical mistake or a supposition as the
body may not exist by then’.
By the way, a number of organisations urged the NCTR
to resign so that the new commission will be set up by
50:50 proportion. Mesrop Haroutyunyan, an expert of
the YPC, claims that they got the following answer
from Grigor Amalyan, head of the NCTR, `We are aware
of it’.
Mesrop Haroutyunyan finds it a breach of subordination
that one and the same NCTR member is appointed by the
NA whereas his liabilities are ceased by the NA
Speaker. Reminder; under the acting law, the NCTR
member cannot hold the post for two terms.
Nune Sargsyan, executive director of `Internews’ NGO,
voiced hope that RA TV Stations will watch the
procedure and participate in it `ensuring unbiased
coverage and the independence of the body regulating
their activity’.
It is noteworthy that only two TV and Radio Stations
were interested in today’s theme.