Open news feed Close news feed
A A

AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW WILL NOT BRING TANGIBLE CHANGES

Social

The legislative amendments carried out to meet the RA Constitution, do not comply with the provisions of the fundamental law of the country in reality. The Constitution foresees new order of the formation of the National Commission for the Television and Radio; i.e. four members of the commission are to be elected by the NA and the rest by the RA President.

To note, currently the NCTR members are appointed by the RA President.

The RA Government endorsed two draft laws regulating the broadcasting sphere. According to the Yerevan Press Club, in case the draft laws are passed, only four years later, in 2011, the 50:50 proportion of the NCTR will be provided which will likely be violated in 2015 again.

By the way, in March commission will have the following proportion 7:1 after the filling the two vacant places of the NCTR. The point is that in case the NA doesn't appoint the member to the NCTR it won't hinder the President to fill the vacancy.

“Thus, the draft bill implies that we shall have 7 members instead of 8 and they will be appointed by the president”, Boris Navasardyan, president of the Yerevan Press Club, assumes. As for the breach of the 2015 proportion, in Boris Navasardyan's words, “It may be an arithmetical mistake or a supposition as the body may not exist by then”.

By the way, a number of organisations urged the NCTR to resign so that the new commission will be set up by 50:50 proportion. Mesrop Haroutyunyan, an expert of the YPC, claims that they got the following answer from Grigor Amalyan, head of the NCTR, “We are aware of it”.

Mesrop Haroutyunyan finds it a breach of subordination that one and the same NCTR member is appointed by the NA whereas his liabilities are ceased by the NA Speaker. Reminder; under the acting law, the NCTR member cannot hold the post for two terms.

Nune Sargsyan, executive director of “Internews” NGO, voiced hope that RA TV Stations will watch the procedure and participate in it “ensuring unbiased coverage and the independence of the body regulating their activity”.

It is noteworthy that only two TV and Radio Stations were interested in today's theme.