The parliament has adopted the amendment to the law on TV and radio presented by the parliament (71 votes for, 5 votes against and one abstained vote), according to which there will be no TV and radio broadcast competitions till July 20, 2010. At first the parliament discussed the bill in first reading, and the next day called an extraordinary session and adopted it. What is hidden in these changes? “Due to these changes the A1+ and Noyan Tapan companies are not allowed to participate in competitions for broadcasting till July 20, 2010. It is also against the decision of the European court, according to which the A1+ shall have the right to participate in such competitions freely. Besides that the European organizations have petitioned the government of Armenia to establish free environment for independent media. Without these two TV companies we will not have independent media,” says the head of Heritage faction Armen Martirosyan. In answer to our question why the government hurries and why the parliament adopted this law so fast the minister of economy Nerses Yeritsyan said, “Because the term of licenses of TV companies terminates on October 4.” A. Martirosyan says that maybe the authorities know something that we don’t know. Maybe at some levels the issue of providing the mentioned media companies with air will be discussed and in such case the authorities will say that according to the law there are no competitions till the mentioned time.
