This was said by the head of “Mig” TV company of Vanadzor, who also said that it was shameful to tell these kinds of lies. He also said that Saturday did not come yet and he could broadcast the interview with Arthur Baghdasaryan.
“Rule of Law” (RL) party made a statement, stating that the “Mig” TV company (Vanadzor city) had taken an interview from Arthur Baghdasaryan and was going to broadcast that interview on Saturday. The mentioned statement writes that the TV made a notice in their programs and asked people to watch the interview in the evening on Saturday. However, according to the RL, on Thursday the director of the mentioned TV company, Samvel Harutyunyan, called them and told them that they could not broadcast the interview since they were not allowed to do that. “Even more, the interview was watched before being broadcasted and there was intimidation on the TV company not to broadcast the interview”, writes the statement.
Yesterday Mher Shahgeldyan and Heghine Bisharyan (RL) said in the parliament that they had been informed that the one that had prohibited the company to broadcast the interview was the head of the regional management of Lori region, Henrik Kochinyan. “Probably they saw that in their dream at night”, told Henrik Kochinyan to our correspondent concerning the abovewritten and added that he didn’t have any contacts with the “Mig”. Concerning the intimidation on the mentioned TV company Henrik Kochinyan said that it was not true. “I wish I had free time to do such things and revise interviews; I don’t have time for such things”, said Henrik Kochinyan and added that usually he spends his free time talking to citizens of their region. “For instance, now I am talking to citizens in Karinj village”, said Henrik Kochinyan.
Yesterday we talked to the head of “Mig” TV company as well to find out why they had not broadcasted the interview with Arthur Baghdasaryan. It turned out that the RL had paid the TV company for broadcasting the interview, nevertheless, neither the RL statement nor the RL members said anything about that payment and it seemed that the TV company had taken the time of Arthur Baghdasaryan and later let him down by not broadcasting the interview. “I can give Arthur’s money back; they shouldn’t speak such lie. Shouldn’t I bring a court case against him for speaking such lie? Why did he lie and tell people that someone prohibited us to broadcast the interview? It is just shameful”, said Samvel Harutyunyan concerning the lie and brought an example by saying that the notice to remind people about the time of the interview that they mentioned was not shown either. “It is not true. Please find anyone that has seen such notice. I don’t understand why they speak such lie if it didn’t happen in fact. Besides that lie, please note that our arrangement to broadcast the interview was not illegal”. As for the mentioned “legal interview”, he means that the law writes that interviews should not contain anything targeted to destroying someone’s reputation and as well as should not contain any baseless information”. Besides that, according to the law they shouldn’t campaign while the pre-election campaigning period has not started. Now it is not an election period and it is prohibited to campaign. The head of the TV company said that the problem concerned the mentioned point since in his interview Arthur Baghdasaryan petitioned the citizens of Vanadzor to join the RL and become their advocates. “In his interview he petitioned people to join them and do some certain things with them. I told them that it is not a pre-election period and suggested them to cut a part of the interview and then broadcast the rest part. Nevertheless, they haven’t answered me yet. Instead of that they made some announcements that contained information that was not true. We had to broadcast the interview on Saturday. Why did they think it would not be broadcasted? They spoke lie without clarifying the situation with us. Why did our journalists have to go to Yerevan to take interview if we didn’t want to broadcast it? It is not logical. If I didn’t want to broadcast the interview I wouldn’t ask my journalists to go to Yerevan. It is just funny”, said the head of “Mig” TV company.
S. Harutyunyan assures that his suggestion to the RL was not illegal and he didn’t told them that they had changed their mind to broadcast the interview, thus there was no reason to make such statements. “I just told them that it was advocacy campaign and the law prohibited us to broadcast such information. Please note that we were going to broadcast the interview on Saturday, thus they didn’t have to make that statement on Thursday. They said that I was an obstacle for their free speech. How can I do that and prohibit them to speak freely? I don’t have such power. I am following the law that they have adopted. Arthur Baghdasaryan is one of those deputies that adopted that law, thus I don’t understand why they are arguing me to violate that law. Why doesn’t he now sign under the draft law on Mass Media proposed by Ashot Melikyan? Why? In a word, he is one of the deputies that adopted that law and I think they shouldn’t argue anyone to violate that law”, said the chairman of “Mig” TV company.
Concerning the information spoken by Heghine Bisharyan saying that Henrik Kochinyan intimidated on the TV company and prohibited them to broadcast the interview Mr. Harutyunyan said, “She may speak everything. What will they say if I broadcast that interview totally tomorrow? It is shameful. Saturday has not come yet and I don’t understand what they really want from us. I told them directly that I didn’t have a right to broadcast that interview totally since I didn’t have a right to broadcast advocacy campaigning materials out of election periods. I told that that they knew the law well too. They told me that they agreed with me and would call me later and tell to cut a part out of the interview. How can I broadcast that information that is targeted to destroying someone’s reputation? It is just shameful. There are two TV companies in Vanadzor: “Mig” and “Lori”. The RL representative spoke things concerning the other TV company that would destroy their reputation; he told that they did orders and did everything that the government ordered them. That is out of the journalists’ ethics and other relevant ethical norms. People don’t have a right to criticize anyone by using slang and argue us to broadcast that information. Accordingly, when they say that a company is taking orders it means that they want to destroy their reputation. Please note that there are only two TV companies in this city and we should keep good relations. Is there any Mass Media representative that publishes information targeted to destroying their colleagues’ reputation? It is not ethical and moral. Please don’t think that I don’t understand the meaning of that situation; I understand it very well”.
By the way, S. Harutyunyan told us that they had informed the RL that the prices for campaigning materials and services were different, however they didn’t ask more money from them since it was not a pre-election period and they didn’t have a right to broadcast campaigning materials. “I told them that the prices for campaigning services were different. I told him that he could pay and speak as soon as the pre-election period started. In other words, Saturday has not come yet and the money they paid us is with me and I can give Arthur’s money back to him”, said S. Harutyunyan and asked what the RL would do if the interview was broadcasted. “However, it doesn’t depend on me; it depends on them. They haven’t called me yet and haven’t told me to cut that part out and to broadcast the rest part of the interview. I called them and asked them to look through the law on Radio and TV activities so that they could see that their leader had violated that law in his interview. Nevertheless, they asked me who had intimidated and told me that no one would know about that and asked me about the institution that we are accountable to. I told them that we were accountable to the commission on TV and radio and could not do anything we wanted”.
P.S. S.Harutyunyan told us during our conversation that he hadn’t seen Henrik Kochinyan during the previous ten days. He said that he had seen Henrik Kochinyan only on TV, when meeting with citizens and talking to them. Even more, even if Henrik Kochinyan wanted to find the head of the TV company, he wouldn’t be able to find him since, as the latter said, he was busy with works on a new TV tower. “If they want to speak lie, they can, it is their business. I can’t argue them not to do such things; it is their business and they can do whatever they want”, said S. Harutyunyan.