On June 15 at the Journalists Union of Armenia the representatives of “VEM”,
“Impulse”, City FM, “Ardzagank”, Radio “HAY”, FM 105.5 radio companies gave
a press-conference. The radio companies are currently challenging clause 1 of
the Resolution of the RA Government of July 6, 2006. According to this clause,
the RA Ministry of Transportation and Communication receives the authority to
define and approve the annual fee for servicing a broadcasting frequency. The
procedure for the payment and the new tariffs for servicing frequencies allocated
to radio companies were introduced by a decree of the Minister of Transportation
and Communication of November 1, 2006. Considering that the decree of the Minister
violated the legal requirements, the radio companies filed a suit with the RA
Commercial Court on January 25, 2007. The Court refused the suit on May 11,
ruling that the government has not exceeded its competence (see YPC Weekly Newsletter,
May 11-17, 2007).
At the press-conference the attorney of the plaintiffs Olga Safarian informed
that on May 25 she had addressed the RA Court of Cassation demanding to abolish
the ruling of the Commercial Court and to redirect the case back to the same
court for its consideration in new composition. The attorney noted that no official
response from the Court of Cassation had been received as yet. Olga Safarian
stressed that the case is of important value as a precedent and in the aspect
of uniform law application. The RA Constitution and the RA Law “On Legal Acts”
contain a demand that the kinds, the sizes and the procedures for parrying taxes,
duties and other mandatory payments, made by natural and legal persons, must
be defined by the law only, Olga Safarian said. As an example the attorney quoted
the RA Law “On Road Duty”, where there is a complete analogy (the roads are
publicly owned, and the duty for their use is defined by law). The representative
of the Armenian Bar Union Anna Kurdova, on her behalf, reinstated the strategic
importance of the requirement of six radio companies in terms of uniform law
application.
