In the picture: Vazrik Sekoyan, the president and executive director of the PanArmenian Media Group
A few days ago, a statement was made on the composition of the PanArmenian Media Group association, according to which the Armenia, ATV and ArmNews TV companies, the ArmRadio107 and Radio Jan radio companies, the Nane magazine and the TV Mol weekly were included in the PanArmenian Media Group association. In this regard, www.aravot.am inquired of the PanArmenian Media Group whether this union didn’t testify to the fact that in reality, the mentioned news agencies belonged to the same owner, since there had been a common notion for years that a set of news agencies, although de facto had different licenses, de jure belonged to the same owner, which contradicted Article 20 of the TV and Radio Act, according to which, “Natural or legal persons can be a licensee of not more than one TV and radio company or TV company and/or one radio company broadcasting in the same zone.”
The PanArmenian Media Group association answered us in writing, “Companies included in the PanArmenian Media Group association control their broadcasting licenses independently and the PanArmenian Media Group CJSC doesn’t have such licenses. Under such circumstances, there can be no issue of violating the article you mentioned.
“Along with that, we inform you that the purpose of the association is to increase the efficiency of organizations’ administrative-economic activities and to adopt modern mechanisms of management.”
In response to another question of ours what the purpose of news agencies’ union was, what principles underlay that process, we got the following answer, “The PanArmenian Media Group CJSC provides consultation services on coordinating and administering business activities based on agreements on agential management, by which the PanArmenian Media Group CJSC gained the right to act on behalf and at the expense of the mentioned companies, to represent their rights and legitimate interests. The union just aims at increasing the efficiency of the companies’ economic activities.”
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In response to our question whether the news agencies’ union didn’t testify to monopolizing and consolidating the information field, the PanArmenian Media Group officials stated, “The PanArmenian Media Group association doesn’t include news agencies, it includes companies, which, as business entities, ordered agential and managerial consultation services provided by the skilled experts of the PanArmenian Media Group CJSC, in order to coordinate their economic activities.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
