On March 31 "Dar 21", "ARMENAKOB", "TV 5", "Yerevan" and "EV" TV companies challenged with the Chamber for Civil and Commercial Cases of the RA Court of Cassation the decision of the Commercial Court of March 14. As it has been reported, the Court refused securing the suit of the five broadcasters versus the National Commission on Television and Radio, filed due to the refusal of the latter to return them their application packages for the broadcast licensing competition for revision (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, March 8-14, 2003).
This confirmed the anxiety we voiced previously that the broadcast licensing competition for five UHFs in Yerevan announced as far back as on October 15, 2002, will be delayed again, and the opposition "A1+" TV company, a bidder in the competition, will again be refused the chance to get back on air before the parliamentary elections. Consequently (and this is validated by the monitoring of Armenian media coverage of presidential elections), the possibility for the public to get diverse opinions will again be reduced to minimum, namely the few opposition newspapers with petty print runs.
