Speaking at a press conference today, Ashot Melikyan, chairman of the “Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression”, noted that in their proposal, amendments had been made on the law on local self-government which allow journalists to freely enter the municipality.
Melikyan reminded that after the famous sewage water story, journalists’ entrance had an entry ban. He also touched upon the draft law “on Television and Radio” presented to them by the National Assembly, but did not speak about it a lot. He only mentioned that the previous authorities did not listen to them, and hoped that these authorities will be more attentive to the topic. A working group has been formed in the National Assembly and working discussions are underway on the draft.
Mr. Melikyan, however, did not consider it important to talk about the possible severe consequences of a number of changes proposed by this project, which are being voiced by many television and radio industry representatives. In particular, the proposed changes already show uneven and unbalanced approaches, there is also a concern about the proposal of providing Public Television with 5 channels and removing other nationwide broadcasters from the public multiplex. If a citizen does not have cable television, he/she will not have any choice but to watch public television.
The draft law proposed by the “Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression” proposes private TV companies to create their own multiplexes, which do not exist in Armenia yet and require serious financial costs. This may lead to a situation when some TV companies are closed.
