The interview with the president of the public TV and Radio board, Alexan Harutyunyan may seem old since the problems discussed in it were raised two weeks ago. However, as the issue of impartiality on the part of TV companies, especially the Public Television (H1) has always been discussed by people, this interview may be discussed in such context.
– Levon Ter-Petrosyan criticized all the 17 TV companies in his speech on September 21 and in fact he was not mistaken as all these companies ignored his critics, and the H1 was one of those TV companies.
– It is not my responsibility or in my competence to interpret the speech of the first president. We are just a public television and our goal is to inform people about what is happening in the public. I don’t see any other goals for us.
– However, the mentioned event that took place in the society was not broadcasted for the society. The first president of the country spoke after keeping silence for ten years, and that speech was not shown by any TV company. Instead of that they showed the opinions of different political scientists and analysts. For instance, how may the citizens of Koghb village community of Noyemberyan know about the opinions of political powers if they don’t have access to Mass Media or radio Liberty?
– I am not the one that can give such estimations. I am not representing an evaluation institution. I am the president of the TV and radio and I don’t want to say anything about it. I don’t think it is my problem.
– Have you seen the speech fully? If yes, where did you get it?
– Usually there are many speeches both in Armenia and overseas and I usually read the speeches which I think are interesting to me. Yes, I have fully read that text.
– You are the head of H1, which has the biggest coverage in the country and it was supposed that the society had to learn about different events through your channel.
– Both during the office of the previous president and during the office of the existing president we were and are responsible to fully broadcast the speech of the existing president on September 21. Thus, we don’t have a goal to fully broadcast the speeches of other politicians, included the former president. Besides that, no one has applied to us with a request to broadcast the speech of the first president on live air, included in Koghb community as you said.
– The problem is that the viewers of H1 were confused. They didn’t know anything about the speech to discuss, form their own opinions or just reject it. Instead of that they had to see reportage on the news program. Thus, the society, informing which is your main objective, was confused and did not understand which part of the speech the journalist was speaking about.
– Any journalist speaks his/her opinion (it was prepared by that journalist for the analytic program on Sunday). I don’t discuss the coverage in your or any other press and I think as well as the public TV has such independence. This is the first thing I said. Second, I am saying one more time that I don’t think that now the main objective of the state and our objective is broadcasting that speech and the discussions concerning it. There are more important problems and issues.
– For example.
– You can switch on the TV every day and watch the news program at 21:00 and you will see that it is reporting on the main topics of the day.
– As a viewer are you satisfied with the information provided by that news program concerning the overall situation in the country or you use other sources of information too?
– No media company can satisfy anyone fully. For that purpose there are different media companies and people have an opportunity to get the information they are interested in. It concerns “Haylur” too. It is the main news program of the republic not only in the field of TV broadcasting, but news too. As for my opinion whether it satisfies me, it is not up to me. If it is the first one, it should be treated like the first one.
– The society has the right to be informed and it is interested in the estimations of the first and the existing presidents about each other, their relations. The first president made a speech in a hotel after a silence of ten years, where he harshly criticized the existing authorities. Later, the existing president gave answer to such critics in another institution. Later, their words were discussed by their followers or oppositionists in details. The TV company has the opportunity to call them together and organize a meeting in one room, where many questions will find their answers.
– The presidential elections have not started yet. If there are announcements, which I think are interesting to the public, we organize reportages on such topics. Besides that, we have public and other such programs which host all the political powers. The TV is not a court room so that the viewers may judge them. When the pre-election period comes, the public TV will do its responsibilities established by the law.
– The prime minister spoke about paradise and hell in his interview given to the chief editor of “Azg” newspaper. Have you thought about such issues?
– All the Christians should think about it. However, it is not enough if only I think about it. I am not the one that may decide where I will go.
P.S. Each person has his/her opinion concerning going to paradise or hell. As we haven’t decided about this and about where to go, let’s follow the good advice of Chaplin. According to him, the climate is better in paradise, but in order to be in contact with a good society, the hell is preferable.