According to Section 3, Article 5 of the Armenian Law on Television and Radio, “Using only foreign languages for television and radio company names, signals and other basic data. Regulations of the current law apply to the television and radio shows that are broadcasted abroad and shows broadcasted in languages of minorities.”
However, our pictures (we apologize for the quality they are taken from TV screen) show that “ATV” and “ArmNews” TV company names are not in Armenian on the TV screen, the English (Latin alphabet) version is used. In the case of “What? Where? When?” TV game it was said that the show was for minorities, whereas in this case, we see the Latin-alphabet names of the TV companies all day long, at different hours.
Aravot.am asked for clarification from the authorized representatives of the TV companies in this regard whether it was not a violation of the law. Vahagn Khachatryan, the newly-appointed director of “ATV”, said in response, “It should be treated as just a picture. I.e. they are no letters, that triangular is just a picture.” In response to our question “i.e. your TV company name is in Armenian, according to you?” he assured that yes, the viewers saw only the picture. We tried to clarify once again “i.e. in your opinion, it is not a violation of law?” Mr. Khachatryan responded, “I think not, because this logo has been there for quite a long time and I don’t think that this is a violation.”
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Artak Alexanyan, the director of “ArmNews” TV company, on the other hand, clarified during a conversation with us, “You are right, it can be perceived as a violation of the law on one side, but it is not a violation of the law, because it is not the name of the TV company, but its logo.”
Artak Alexanyan also said that they had created a special bloom, in order that “ArmNews TV channel” written in Armenian was always next to the logo, “On the other hand, ‘ArmNews’ is one of those exceptional TV channels that broadcasts information all day long, 24 hours a day, in Armenian and I don’t think that it is a violation of the law. It is a logo that appears on the right corner and the Armenian version is reminded almost every 15 minutes.”
At our request, the National Commission on TV and Radio (NCTR) will comment on whether it is a violation or not soon.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
