Perhaps no one will ever get surprised if one day Robert Kocharyan wakes up and says that he used to like to read opposition papers a lot but he is not able to do that any more because he will not be able to get any other newspapers besides the pro-government ones. Now we don’t get surprised when the government announces that cessation of “A1 +” TV channel was not a consequence of a political decision.
The “RA Law on Posting”, which was adopted in December 2004 once again proves that the cessation of both “A1+” and “Noyan Tapan” TV channels was a pure political approach. The broadcast of the mentioned TV channels was ceased because according to “RA Law on TV and Radio” and the “RA Law on Posting” it is attempted to hinder the dissemination of the print media. Thus, the government is preparing for the coming parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007-2008. That’s why they need to immediately get rid of the press, which disseminates objective information.
According to Article 3 of the “law on posting” the agencies that conduct newspaper subscription and dissemination must get a license and annually pay 5 million AMD, otherwise the activity of the agencies will be considered illegal. Those agencies received the mentioned information only 15 days ago when the officers of the State Tax Inspection adjacent to the government had started to check the activities of those agencies on the basis of certain documents. By the way, in Armenia besides “Arm Post” and “Arm Press” agencies there are also 5 more agencies, which are occupied with the same activity. The director of “Blitz Media” LTD Armen Davtyan is also one of the happy ones who has been informed only after the tax inspectors showed up. The inspectors have immediately testified that Armen Davtyan had been occupied with illegal activity and was subject to penalty. “We didn’t have any idea of this new law. We only got informed after the officers of the tax inspection showed in our agency and said that we were occupied by unlicensed activity and constrained the RA Law on Posting. The RA Ministry of Communication and Transport, which is the author of the law had to send us a special note and inform us about our new responsibilities. I didn’t even mention the workshop that they were supposed to organize for us”, says A. Davtyan. The mentioned LTD’s and others deal with the tax inspection at least once a month. However, during the last six months the tax inspection, while receiving reports from those LTD’s didn’t notify them that their activity was illegal. “There was no conversation like this. We have presented VAT and other monthly reports to the tax inspection but they didn’t tell us anything. They had to warn us to license our activity”, mentioned the director of “Blitz Media” LTD. “The dissemination and subscription of newspapers shall not be done by license”, says A. Davtyan and adds, “what about the European Convention that our country signed? By signing that Convention our country was obliged not to adopt any document or law that would hinder the dissemination of press media. They speak about democracy and about other great ideas and now they want to license this field. I am surprised. A lot of money is invested from abroad to help the agencies, which disseminate newspapers, work more correctly and efficiently but surprisingly our country prohibits our activity”.
However this is not the only strange thing. It turns out that for our government the print media and the casino should be licensed similarly. If the casinos and the agencies disseminating print media want to operate they will have to equally pay 5 million AMD annually. “Casinos annually pay 5 million AMD for license. According to this new law we are also supposed to pay the same amount. The license of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages is only 50000 AMD. So what now? Are we a casino or what?”, asks A. Davtyan with great surprise and assures that if the law is not revised all the other agencies besides “Arm Post” and “Arm Print Media” will be closed. “We are not able to pay that much”, he says. “But if the license of the cigarettes and alcoholic beverages is 50000 AMD it would be fair enough to have the same cost for newspapers. No one would ever complain if it was only 50000 AMD. We will pay up to 100 000 AMD, we cannot pay any more because it doesn’t make sense. However in general we are against licensing. We are not a casino and in this regard we mean the freedom of speech, which cannot be restricted and the idea of licensing contradicts the freedom of speech and its dissemination.”
As a matter of fact, the director of “Arm Print Media” Haykaram Mkhitaryan informed us that he recently had to pay 5 million AMD for the license. Otherwise he mentioned that he wasn’t able to work any more because everyone wanted a license from him. As a response to the insistence of the RA Minister of Communication and Transport (according to him the print media dissemination is not subject to licensing) H. Mkhitaryan said, “the law clearly says that the agencies should be licensed because they are providing posting service, and I can’t wait for months to hope that the law might enter in the RA National Assembly for revision.”
Let’s recall that in Slovenia the legal or physical entities, which would hinder the dissemination of print media, are subject to a one-year arrest. And in Minsk the situation is totally different. There Lukashenko was the first to license the dissemination of newspapers and after witnessing that there are not that many complaints decided to license the import of newspapers. And at the end he licensed the operation of editorial houses. Thus, everything proceeds in the same logic and sequence.
The policy conducted by the government will be more exposed after they start to get ready to campaign for the parliamentary elections. At that time there will be a great question whether the agencies that have acquired licenses will equally disseminate the opposition press or they will announce that the opposition papers don’t have readers.