For the chairman of the journalists’ club Asparez, the decision of the National Commission on TV and Radio (NCTR) to impose one-million-AMD fine on Kentron TV channel for anti-propaganda is a decision to constrain broadcasting live in Armenia. “The NCTR lets the whole world know that broadcasting live in Armenia is very risky. The NCTR should amend the law that one cannot broadcast live, because in that case, no one can interfere and edit the TV channel, the TV channel has an editorial mission over the materials, which it will produce. In this very case, the TV channel has played a role of a technical tube and if the NCTR thinks that someone was engaged in propaganda, it should have, first of all, found out the source of propaganda,” Levon Barseghyan, the chairman of Asparez Club, said to www.aravot.am.
He is convinced that the decision of the NCTR expresses the government’s fear that this TV channel may not obey during the upcoming presidential election, “And it may not endorse the only candidate of heaven or endorse another candidate – this doesn’t suffice the NCTR at all.”
The decision to fine Kentron has a political motivation, in Mr. Barseghyan’s opinion, “The NCTR had many possibilities to call to order mass media for violations of the legislation in 2008, we filed a lot of complaints in regard to the advertisement legislation, if they start to supervise the TV broadcasting with the naked eye, they will find at least three grounds a day for calling TV channels to order, but they don’t do that, Mr. Amalyan sticks to restricting the freedom of speech on principle.”
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For Mr. Barseghyan, the decision of the NCTR to start administrative proceedings against Kentron is a special message, “They want to say that Mr. Tsarukyan had better return to the family or they will deprive him of television or just sell and go. That TV channel is not in the hands of a certain person’s son-in-law, so, it should also be in the hands of someone’s son-in-law.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
