During its yesterday’s broadcasts’ Public Television reported that changes had been made to the provisions on media activity, in particular, when airing programs without official information, the media outlets should publish the refutation or clarification provided by the Commandant’s Office within two hours.
In the headlines of the materials copied from foreign media on the Coronavirus should be mentioned the source of the material. Whereas, the fact that the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media is concerned about the restrictions on press freedom in Armenia and made a statement that was disseminated by all other television and media outlets, was neglected by the Public TV. The statement noted, “The law should not impede the work of journalists and their ability to report on the pandemic. Publishing only information provided by the authorities is a very restrictive measure which would limit freedom of the media and access to information disproportionately.”
It turns out that the Public Television, operating at the expense of taxpayers, does not present the news comprehensively and actually decided which news to broadcast. By the way, after the restrictions were imposed, the authorities announced that they would be abolished, while, on the contrary, large fines were imposed and only insignificant changes were made.
