On December 19 the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on Science, Education,
Culture, Youth and Sport Issues held parliamentary hearings on “Content of the
TV Air and Legislative Regulation of TV Advertising”. The journalistic associations
that took part in the debate, including Yerevan Press Club, had supposed that
the discussion would center on the urgent issues of the broadcasting. Unfortunately,
the hearing was of a general nature. Most of the remarks made referred to the
problems of language use and esthetics. Such key issues as the formation of
the regulatory body, the transparency of broadcast licensing competitions and
distinct criteria upon which the National Commission on Television and Radio
bases its license provision decisions, development of mechanisms for regulating
the activities of the Public TV and Radio Company, digitalization in the context
of Armenia’s commitments to the Council of Europe were not touched on. The representatives
of journalistic associations drew the attention of the organizers to this fact,
and the Chairman of the specialized parliament Committee Armen Ashotian assured
that new hearings will be organized to consider the whole range of problems
faced by the broadcasting.
Meanwhile it was reasonable to expect due attention to the recent resolutions
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In particular, on December
18 the provisional version of PACE Resolution “The Implementation by Armenia
of Assembly Resolutions 1609 (2008) and 1620 (2008)” was released after the
approval of the Committee on the Honoring of Obligations and Commitments by
Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee). Clause 8.2 of
the provisional version refers to the amendments to the RA Law “On Television
and Radio”, adopted on September 10, 2008, according to which the broadcast
licensing competitions are suspended till July 20, 2010 due to the need to make
preparations for digitalization (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September
5-11, 2008). This Clause stresses that “the technical requirements for the
introduction of digital broadcasting should not be used by the authorities to
unduly delay the holding of an open, fair and transparent tender for broadcasting
licenses, as demanded by the Assembly”. The provisional version of the new Resolution,
stipulating a sanction of suspension of voting rights of the Armenian delegation,
will be presented for the consideration of the PACE winter session on January
26-30, 2009.
