The Parliamentary faction of United Labor Party (ULP) made an initiative to introduce amendments to RA Law “On Postal Communication”. The draft law submitted on February 17 to RA National Assembly proposes to exclude from Article 3 of the Law “On Postal Communication”, containing a list of postal services, subscription for the periodicals (in compliance with Article 11 of the Law, the postal services are subject to licensing).
The basis for the legislative initiative of ULP faction was an ambiguous wording of the mentioned Article, causing different interpretations. Thus, it allowed the tax bodies to demand licenses from the companies engaged in the distribution of newspapers and magazines by subscription, otherwise they would face sanctions likely to result in bankruptcy (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, December 2-8, 2005). The journalistic associations of Armenia, including YPC, and the “Partnership for Open Society” initiative expressed concern over the situation and called on the authorities to reconsider the law provisions. The author of the Law “On Postal Communication”, RA Ministry of Transport and Communication, gave an official clarification, stating that the subscription for the periodicals is not a postal service, and, correspondingly, is not viewed as an activity liable to licensing (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 3-9, 2006). Now, it is up to the National Assembly to give a final resolution of the issue.
