Levon Barseghyan, the chairman of the journalists’ club Asparez council, sent a proposal of amending the Armenian budget draft for 2013 and the Television and Radio Act of the Republic of Armenia on October 31 to all 73 MPs who have emails. According to him, the purpose of the proposal is to spend additional 1 billion AMD from the Public Television state budget and legally free the same TV channel’s programs of commercials.
The general idea of the proposal is stabilization of financing the Armenian Public Television, reduction of the possible shadow advertisement money’s circulation in the advertisement market and increase of broadcasting time on the Public Television. Mr. Barseghyan explicitly showed in the package of proposals sent to the MPs what mechanisms had to be used to provide the Public Television with the mentioned sum.
www.aravot.am discussed the above-mentioned proposal’s feasibility and efficiency level during a conversation with representatives of different political forces. Artsvik Minasyan, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) parliamentary group member, said in this regard, “This proposal is one of the most important provisions of our election program. We proposed to eliminate advertisement on the Public Television, put the main emphasis on public services and provide with respective money from the state budget. L. Barseghyan bases his proposal on digital data, which I think is useful. However, having this budget, I don’t think the proposal is realistic, since the budget is structured based on the principle of inertia and not on a desire to make fundamental changes.”
Karine Achemyan, a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) parliamentary group thinks otherwise, “I think it is not realistic, since our budget is not limitless and I don’t see where we can provide that money from. Admittedly, there are problems related to commercials, but I don’t think that they are that big to solve issues in such a revolutionary manner. Certainly, it would be very good, if that money was provided for by the budget, but I don’t think it is realistic, since I understand that it is quite a lot of money. I know regarding the advertising problems of the Public Television, in particular, that this organization is a separate organization that deals with commercials and is not included in the Public Television and if there are some problems, they should be checked and confirmed with facts, not with words.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
