On October 31, Levon Barseghian, Board Chairman of “Asparez” Journalists’ Club of Gyumri, sent a letter to RA National Assembly deputies, suggesting amendments to the draft of the RA Budget in 2013 and the RA Law “On Television and Radio”. Levon Barseghian proposed to introduce a legal ban on commercial advertising on the Public Television of Armenia, and instead – to increase the budgetary allocations to PTA in the amount of 1 billion AMD (about $ 2,440,000). According to “Asparez”, this ban will annually make available 640-670 hours of PTA’s airtime, which could be used in the public interest – for educational, cultural, and other purposes. The given initiative is based on the results of the monitoring of the volume and distribution of advertising on PTA First Channel, being implemented by “Asparez” in 2011-2012 (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 5-11, 2012), as well as on the annual reports of the Public TV and Radio company.
The full letter of Levon Barseghian to RA NA deputies is available in Armenian at http://www.asparez.am/.
