On March 16 Yerevan Press Club received the response of National Commission on Television and Radio to its query of March 5 on provision of information about two legal cases in which NCTR is involved.
One of the suits was lodged by NCTR against the founder of “ArpaInform” regional TV company, “ArpaInform” LLC (Vayots Dzor). On December 22, 2011 NCTR had filed the RA Administrative Court of Vedi demanding to cancel the broadcast license granted to “ArpaInform” LLC on January 10, 2011, since the company has not been broadcasting throughout six months. The suit was submitted to consideration on January 9, 2012 and was secured on February 6. YPC demanded NCTR to inform whether the ruling was contested. The NCTR letter noted that as of March 12 (date of response) “RA Administrative Court of Appeal has not notified NCTR about any appeal”.
It should be noted that one of the points of Article 48 of RA Law “On Television and Radio” binds NCTR to publish the full list of frequencies “upon necessity, but at least once a year” and announce competitions for free frequencies. Thus, once the court ruling on canceling the broadcast license of “ArpaInform” enters into force, a competition for regional TV channels of general profile in Vayots Dzor region must be announced.
The second suit was lodged versus NCTR by 14 students of Law Faculty of Yerevan State University. The matter of the suit became the results of monitoring some Armenian TV channels, implemented by the students in 2011. The study had revealed violations of advertising legislation, particularly by “Armenia” TV channel. The plaintiffs demanded to uphold the inaction of NCTR as unlawful, oblige it to make an official warning to the “Armenia” founder, “Armenia TV” CJSC, as well as prohibit the broadcasting of unfair advertising. The suit was taken into consideration by RA Administrative Court on May 18, 2011, hearings started on July 12, 2011. The ruling had to be released on February 15, 2012, however YPC did not manage to get an official information about it. In the request to NCTR, YPC demanded to provide information on the substance of the ruling. As the NCTR response stressed, as of March 12 “the Commission has not been duly notified about the ruling rendered by RA Administrative Court”. NCTR also noted that the issue of filing an appeal will be considered after receiving the court ruling. Meanwhile, reportedly the suit has been secured.
