A1+ was deprived of broadcasting 10 years ago. It is a weakness and a manifestation of intolerance of both the previous and the current establishments – those two characteristics are often combined – a self-assured politician or political force is ready to hear words that are not pleasant for him.
However, in 2002, it was probably justified to have fully “responsible” broadcasting and keeping a whole National Commission on TV and Radio (NCTR) as a tool for that end. Today, it is meaningless, it gradually becomes more and more meaningless and characters like Amalyan are real antiques and rudiments of the Kocharyan regime now. Modern technologies make it possible to broadly spread information unpleasant for the establishment these days and the establishment with its ancient methods makes it worse for: a. it; b. the field; c. the state. Pursuing exceptionally political aims (not to let unpleasant mass media on the air), the government just prevents the development of the field, making both technically and ideologically irrational decisions. Roughly two years ago, the Ministry of Economy stated that the Canadian Aerosystems International Ltd was conducting an audit of frequencies, based on which the ministry had determined its policy concerning the field. It would have been logical, if that audit answered a few primitive questions: how many frequencies there were inArmeniaand whether all of them were functioning; what demand there was regarding the orientation of TV companies – let’s say, 2 general, 2 news, 1 sports and 1 cultural channels etc.
Journalistic organizations were trying to understand for a few months what respectful Canadians had examined and what conclusion they had made. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economy would answer that it was examining the report. In the end, after a one-year “examination” the report was given to the Freedom of Speech Protection Committee (FSPC) and, as it was expected, it was much ado about nothing – only one and a half pages in a 141-page report were about the field of broadcasting, they contained information that everyone in Armenia knew without any audit – what TV companies there were and how they were broadcasted.
Ashot Melikyan, the FSPC chairman, wrote, “When (in 2010 – A.A.) Nerses Yeritsyan claimed that all decisions regarding the technical side of the switch to digital broadcasting were made, taking into account the results of the audit, it didn’t correspond to the reality, to say the least.” To say the very least.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
