On October 24 at the session of the RA National Assembly the RA Draft Law “On Introducing Amendments and Additions into RA Law ‘On Television and Radio’” was considered in the second hearing and finally adopted. The first hearing of this Draft Law, introduced by the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture and Youth Issues on the basis of the suggestions made by private broadcasters of the country, was held on September 12 (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 8-14, 2001). The ratified amendments to the acting broadcast law regulate the activities of private TV and radio companies. The most significant changes include: the abolition of the requirement for licensing TV and radio production; assigning privileges to the acting TV and radio companies in the competition for the use of the same frequencies; abolition of the auction for receiving a broadcast license. Besides, a restriction is introduced on the right of the Head of the State to use the airtime of the private TV and radio companies for broadcasting official announcements in emergencies. Without the agreement of private broadcasters, the airtime to be taken by the official announcements cannot exceed more than ten minutes per hour.
