Republican Member of Parliament, Galust Sahakyan, commented on the amendments to the law on television and radio and the law on the state levy in a news conference yesterday at Pastark Club. According to him, these amendments are made for the broadcaster and are not against Radio Liberty and all this noise comes somewhere from the side.
According to him, all this noise comes from the side somewhere, but he does not know which side. He said that the broadcasters are not complaining about the change of the law, since these broadcasters don’t see anything political aimed against them. “If you think that the amendments are introduced to take revenge on the station you are deluded, as there are numerous other ways to do this if desired. Both the Republican Party and I have always respected the mass media, even though they defame us. The journalists must learn to raise the level of their work.” Yesterday, at about the same time Sahakyan was trying to persuade the journalists that the discussed bills have nothing to do with “Liberty”, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan was telling the journalists at Friday Club how important he finds the role of media and for that reason he had organized a conference in Istanbul, in which over 40 journalists participated, hosted popular TV shows in Turkey, etc. What does the FM think about this attempt of limiting free speech in Armenia? “You know it’s in the discussion stage yet. I closely follow this process because it interests me first as a FM, because they will be asking questions during my foreign visits and meetings with internationals,” he said. From these words, it became clear that even Oskanyan didn’t doubt that this bill would be adopted. “I can only say the following: no matter what law we adopt, it will never be a step backwards in the area of liberties,” hoped Oskanyan. But if the law restricts the broadcast of the radio Liberty, what international reaction Oskanyan will predict? “Right now I just don’t want to think that all of a sudden Liberty may be deprived of airtime,” he told. “It will hurt me if Radio Liberty stops going on the air,” he said. “It will hurt me. Liberty makes its contribution to democracy. It would be unfortunate to see Liberty deprived of airtime for some reason.” Does the top government share this opinion with Oskanyan? “I think there are people in the government who share this opinion,” answered the minister. A few hours after Oskanyan’s statement, the Armenian legislators adopted the law on television and radio and the law on the state levy, which gave a green light for them to ban the broadcasts of Radio Liberty. The RPA, Prosperous Armenia, and the great supporter of free speech, ARF, voted “for”. Besides the Legal State and Heritage factions, independent deputies Victor Dallakyan, Khachatour Sukiasyan and Martin Grigoryan also voted against the bill. Davit Harutyunyan, former Justice Minister and current head of the NA Standing Committee on Legal and State Issues, abstained. According to Liberty, prior to the voting the Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Armenia, Anthony Godfrey, met the Armenian Prime Minister, Serge Sargsyan. Yesterday Godfrey also met Tigran Torosyan. “The USA has been proud of Radio Liberty’s work for a long time. If this bill is directed against Radio Liberty, it is incomprehensible how the law will contribute to democratic purposes,” he noted. Yesterday Godfrey also shared the concerns of his government about the possibility of terminating the Liberty transmission with Torosyan, by noting that the Liberty’s activity during the elections has been valuable for the West, and the Millenium Challenge program in particular. Torosyan mentioned that the bill doesn’t have anything in it against the Liberty. Therefore, there is no need to worry that the government is trying to ban the broadcast of the Radio Liberty. As to the termination or continuation of the broadcast of the Radio Liberty, Torosyan mentioned that those are outside his authority, and advised Godfrey to apply to appropriate bodies.