In September the government of Armenia is planning drastic changes in the TV companies of the country. But strangely enough the government decided to keep this information top secret. The reason why they decided to make changes in the television sector I think is not surprising for any one at all. The thing is that the government has already decided that the Presidential elections 2008 will be held on February 17 and that the head of the campaign of the governmental candidate, Serj Sargsyan, will be RPA coordinator Hovik Abrahamyan. And the mot important factor of preparing for the presidential election is be able to control the TV sector and entrust it to loyalists. And as the print media, which has low turnout in Armenia is not hazardous for the government, they decided not to touch. That’s the reason why starting from September the government will appoint its loyalists in all TV companies.
According to our sources the Public TV is not going to be apart from this process. According to that decision the following people will leave the Public Television – Haylur news program director, Harutyun Harutyunyan and H1 executive director, Armen Arzumanyan. Changes will be made in the Public Radio, the director of which, Armen Amiryan, according to the same source, made his own decision to leave. They already speak who is going to replace Amiryan. The replacement is going to be Mery Harutyunyan, the officer of control of public relations of the government. The latter, however, when speaking to us, denied those rumors by saying that she doesn’t yet want to change her post. Armen Amiryan is on vacation and when speaking to us he said that he’s not aware of the changes as he I resting. To the question whether he wants to leave his job Amiryan didn’t answer. Therefore we asked whether he’s not tired of his job. He answered, “I am over forty now. Of course, I am tired.”
Nowadays rumors actively go around that the owners of the H2, ALM and Kentron are also going to be replaced. In fact the explanation of such change for private TV channels is perhaps the same. Presidential elations are coming up and the government wishes to control the whole sector. According to our sources the government has decided to entrust the management of ALM to Sharm Company, which as it’s known has been for a short period directing the Kentron TV, which has been renamed from A1+. However, as usual the president of ALM Holding, Tigran Karapetyan refuses to admit that the government wishes to take away his TV channel. Yesterday when talking to us Tigran Karapetyan, who hasn’t taken a vacation by preferring to rest when traveling during his pre-campaign tours, such as bussing people to lake Sevan, said, “No, no. no. A thousand nos. I am not going to sell my TV channel. That is the dream of many people. You used to write that after the parliamentary elections I am going to sell everything and migrate from here. As you see it didn’t happen. In Armenia many other things will be sold but not ALM ever.” Perhaps Tigran Karapetyn hasn’t well understood that the government is planning to take away the channel, which discovers diamonds. It means that they will take it away from him without asking his consent. By the way according to our information the head of the Prosperous Armenia Parliamentary faction, Gagik Tsarukyan, also has a share in the ALM.
As of H2 then according to our information the government has decided to sell it to businessman Mikhail Baghdasarov; as of Kentron TV they say that its owner is going to become the owner of BAMO Company, Mourad Mouradyan. Let us also mention that as of the Kentron TV the government may still review its standpoint but as of the others everything is already decided. It’s hard to guess why the government is keeping this process in secret. Perhaps the reason is that they haven’t yet got oriented who to trust.