As we have already informed, President Serzh Sargsyan has responded to the open letter of the intelligentsia and youth organizations about cleaning up the TV broadcasting and has given a specific instruction to the Public Council.
Vazgen Manukyan, the chairman of the council, refused to make public the details of the instruction and only said that the issue would be put on the Public Council’s agenda in September, “August is a dead month, it will continue in September, I cannot say anything,
because we have to discuss it with broad layers of the society. There is a letter, there is a problem, we have to try to solve that problem by meeting with experts; we will try to make offers.”
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We inquired of Mr. Manukyan whether he shared the concerns of Grigor Amalyan, the head of the National Commission on TV and Radio, that “We have criteria, which will basically not resolve the issue raised today, which is an issue regarding the quality. Our criteria are like red traffic light – one cannot show this thing from this time till this time. Those are very firm, rigid filters, which cannot be there. However, if one remembers the enumeration of criteria in our legislation, one will see that even if we ensure those criteria, we will never be able to change the quality of TV broadcasting.” In response, Mr. Manukyan said, “I have personally met with Amalyan and talked about that, there is a problem, the solutions are hard to see, but there are solutions, the whole world tries to find solutions to that. Now the Public Council has no ready solution, we are in the working process, when opinions crystallize a bit, those opinions will be discussed. We have already met with presidents of creative unions, we will meet with directors of TV companies, various NGOs, then we will form our opinion. I cannot say anything else, I am busy right now.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
