Either today or during the next week the parliament will vote for the amendment to the “law on TV and radio”, according to which all TV channels should be digitalized. There have been a lot of critics and concerns expressed about the bill during this period because as a result of digitalization the number of TV companies will be cut down and these companies will be controlled by the government more strictly. The discussions on the bill were stopped yesterday because Heritage party had some disagreements concerning several provisions in the bill. The ARF has some reservations about the bill too. The government may take into account the concerns of the opposition, or it may generally ignore them. Indeed such discussions are changing the content of the issue because it is up to the desire of the government to give permission to TV companies to get a license or no. It was like that 10 years ago when the A1+ was shut down too. It means that the discussions and the critics addressed at the government for this bill are somehow legitimizing what the government has done or is going to do without any laws or by breaking the laws. The concerns that the new law may put pressure on the existing TV companies are baseless because all TV companies are totally controlled by the government and if the control is restricted, it will result not in the impact of the media sector but in the change of the rules of campaigning and advocating for the government.
