On December 13-14 in Tsaghkadzor a seminar “Prospects of Media Self-Regulation
and Activities in the Sphere” was held by Yerevan Press Club with the support
of Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation-Armenia. In the event members
of the Media Ethics Observatory took part as well as the heads of media who
backed the YPC initiative to form a self-regulation system.
At the seminar the activities of the MEO during the past year were summed up,
presentations were made on the trends of media accountability system development
in Europe, the professional ethics of Armenian media when covering foreign affairs
and regional problems. The participants also heard about the findings of the
survey administered by Yerevan Press Club in late October 2008 in Yerevan, Gyumri,
Vanadzor and Kapan to determine the adequacy of Armenian TV companies’ work
to the information demands of their audience.
Within the seminar meetings with the RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian and
the RA Human Rights Defender Armen Harutiunian were held.
The RA Prime Minister was presented the activities of Media Ethics Observatory,
the mission of which is to consider the complaints-appeals on the violations
of the Code of Conduct of Media Representatives and making judgments on them.
The head of the Government supported the idea of resolving conflicts between
the executive and media out of court, through self-regulation mechanisms, such
as the MEO. Referring to other topical issues faced by the media community,
the seminar participants expressed their concern over the new draft law on freedom
of information, developed by the RA Ministry of Justice (see details in YPC
Weekly Newsletter, October 17-23, 2008). The head of the Cabinet
stressed that the draft would not be submitted to the parliament without a discussion
with all the stakeholders.
In the conversation with the RA Human Rights Defender Armen Harutiunian the
urgency and the necessity for establishing cooperation between the ombudsman’s
office and the MEO was stressed. In particular, Armen Harutiunian proposed the
participation of his representative in the sessions of MEO. The RA Human Rights
Defender also suggested to jointly study the types of complaints that people
have against media for violating their rights.
Media Ethics Observatory was formed on March 10, 2007 by the heads of Armenian
media who supported the YPC self-regulation initiative and signed the Code of
Conduct of Media Representatives and its addendum, the Declaration on Election
and Referendum Coverage Principles (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, March
9-15, 2007). Recently the initiative was joined by 4 more media: “Noyan
Tapan” News and Analysis Center, “Hrazdan” (Hrazdan, Kotayk region) and “Last”
(Goris, Syunik region) TV companies, “Zhamanaki Mitk” newspaper. Thus, as of
today the Code of Conduct is signed by 35 media. The initiative is also supported
by 8 journalistic associations.
