On June 24 the co-rapporteurs on Armenia of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, John Prescott and Georges Colombier, made a statement welcoming the series of initiatives outlined in the reply of the Speaker of the RA National Assembly, Hovik Abrahamian, to their letter recommending the establishment of a clear roadmap for reforms in Armenia. While touching upon different issues, the PACE co-rapporteurs expressed their concern about the amendments to the RA Law “On Television and Radio”. As it has been reported, the amendments to the Broadcast Law (the authors justified them by the need of switching from analog to digital broadcasting) were adopted by the parliament on June 10 and signed by RA President on June 17. At all its stages the document was strictly criticized by journalistic, as well as international organizations (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, June 18-24, 2010, and June 11-17, 2010).
John Prescott and Georges Colombier marked that several highly-respected organizations have criticized the amendments for failing to ensure the required pluralistic media environment in Armenia. According to PACE co-rapporteurs (as adopted in several of its resolutions), the reform of the legal framework for the Armenian media should not only result in a fully transparent licensing procedure, but also in a far more diverse and pluralistic media environment than is currently the case in Armenia.
