On March 26 the draft RA Law "On Mass Communication" was submitted to the consideration of the extraordinary session of the RA National Assembly. As it has been reported, the first version of the draft, developed by the RA Ministry of Justice and approved by the Government on February 7 last year, caused a huge protest wave of the media and journalistic associations of the country, was negatively assessed by local and international experts. Further the document was revised (also taking into account some demands of the journalistic community), approved on November 7 and introduced to the Parliament in mid-November, 2002. During the December hearings at the NA the Armenian media and professional organizations, including Yerevan Press Club, once again introduced their proposals on both the content of the draft and the preferability of its consideration after the parliamentary elections in May 2003.
Despite this, on March 24 RA President Robert Kocharian signed a decree of summoning an extraordinary parliamentary session the next day, the agenda of which, in addition to other issues, included the first hearing of the draft "On Mass Communication".
The decree of the President raised another wave of discontent. On March 25 and 26 a number of opposition newspapers (in particular, "Aravot", "Orran", "Haikakan Zhamanak", "Ayzhm", "Iravunk"), similarly to March last year (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 23 – March 1, 2002), were issued with an appeal: "No to Censorship! Remove the Draft Law ‘On Mass Communication’ from Circulation!”
On March 26 and the subsequent days of the ordinary parliament session the representatives of "the fourth estate" took part in a demonstration and pickets, organized by National Press Club, by the NA houses. The main demand of the rally participants was the removal of the draft from the agenda and its consideration only after the parliamentary elections on May 25.
Eventually, the voting on the draft "On Mass Communication" did not occur due to lack of quorum.
It is important to note that on March 21 the NA Vice Speaker Tigran Torosian announced that the draft law "On Mass Communication" received the positive assessment of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. Yerevan Press Club addressed this structure for clarification. The Deputy Secretary of the CE Venice Commission Thomas Markert informed us that the Venice Commission did not represent any assessment of the draft, and what was meant were probably the last comments of the experts of the CE Directorate General of Human Rights (DG II) made on May 17 last year. In the comments it was particularly stressed that "consensus among media professionals on different provisions of this law is more important than a quick adoption". Thus, the Council of Europe realized that the timeframes it has set are not a dogma, if the public has serious objections to the document.
Yerevan Press Club fully shares the opinion of the media and professional associations who believe that in the current tense political situation and the controversies on the draft "On Mass Communication" being present, its adoption today is not opportune and must be delegated to the new Parliament.
As to the contents of the draft, in the opinion of YPC, some provisions continue to cause serious concern, in particular, with regard to the fact that the law must regulate the activities of traditional media – also to comply with the commitments of Armenia to the Council of Europe. Meanwhile, the draft regulates the dissemination of the information in general, also via Internet.
Secondly, the required transparency of media funding is also doubtful. Technically, it corresponds to the international standards, however, the journalist community of the country fears that this provision will be applied selectively and can become a method of exercising pressure on the unwanted media. The lawmakers must take these fears into account seriously.
