The tax officers have not been able to find anything wrong with the accounting records of Gala TV during the past several days. Instead the TV Company was deprived of its main advertisement orders. Of 26-27 companies working with us only 3 are left at the moment, and we expect them to quit working with us in the course of next two-three days. The reason for such pressure was that the TV channel had broadcast the speeches of Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters.
The founder and owner of GALA TV Vahan Khachatryan informed the journalists, that the tax officers have not been able to find anything wrong with the accounting records of the TV which has existed only two years so far. However, the impacts of state pressures against the TV company are already felt: “They have been ‘asking’ all the companies advertising on our channel to stop advertising with us. Of 27 companies working with us only 3 are left at the moment, and we expect them to quit working with us in the course of next two-three days” Vahan Khachatryan told us. “Soon we won’t have advertisement left. Instead, we will broadcast articles from the Republic of Armenia’s Constitution during the slots allocated for advertisement”. He wasn’t sure who is exactly after him: State Security Service, or the 6th department, Tax Service, President’s office, or perhaps all of them jointly. However, the messages received in various forms from various officials has been clear: if GALA TV continues its policy of covering all political forces in the country objectively and reports information related to Nikol Pashinyan (editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper, leader of anti-government “Aylyntranq” movement) and First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian, they will make sure, that Vahan Khachatryan loses all his businesses in Gyumri and leaves the country. The owner of GALA TV was sure, that the mentioned agencies will make something up – but, he seemed firm on his principles and prepared to fight back. Two of the officers literally ran away from the camera, while the third – Gagik Ohanyan, head of the First Department of State Taxation Service, Operative Intelligence Agency, faced the microphones and cameras to say, that this is a routine checkup and has nothing to do with politics. Journalists representing more then ten national newspapers expressed their opinion about this fact. The head of the Committee, Ashot Melikyan mentioned that the activities if the tax bodies are illegal. Besides that there is an international practice, according to which it is forbidden to check in TV channels within 6 months prior to elections in order not to out pressure on them. This visit of the journalists from the capital was perceived as an act of moral support and solidarity by the staff of GALA TV, and indeed, I felt a sudden twist of pride and sense of the power of media (small as it was in this case), when the tax officers entered the TV company for their third day of inspections which started on 29th October, and found Vahan Khachatryan surrounded by journalists from the capital. Inspection continued in Gala yesterday as well. Gagik Ohanyan answered a few of journalists’ questions in order not to make this inspection process look “politicized”. “Our inspections are connected budget relations. They are trying to politicize the whole process. We cannot delay our planned inspections because of the upcoming elections. If we follow this assumption it will mean that all the mistakes and incorrect activities of major businesses are also going to be supposed as politicized,” he said. The work of the journalists continued in the office of Shirak governor – Lida Nanyan, and then on to the streets of Gyumri, asking the people – what they thought of the developments around GALA TV. Several days ago one of the governmental newspaper had written that the tax bodies have found violations in Gala but a few days after that this information was denied. The interesting thing is that they have started to speak about violations prior to the inspection. Interestingly enough, those violations must have been connected with governor of Shirak, Nanyan, who at the time was the head of the Tax Inspection Body of Gyumri. But she has mentioned that during her work at the tax body she has not ever found any incorrectness in the activity of Gala. “We have conducted inspections several times and haven’t even once found a violation connected with tax payments. If there is no violation like that then there is no ground to blame them,” she said. It’s not yet clear why the tax bodies have decided to conduct their inspections at Gala now. But one thing is clear for sure. By this action the government has provided a wonderful PR for the TV channel. If in past only the residents of Shirak (even not everyone) knew about Gala then it has became famous all over the republic and even abroad. After all they are saying there is no use from the government.