Aravot.am inquired from Tigran Hakobyan, Chairman of the Commission on Television and Radio – (CTR), what violations of the provisions of the agreement on the broadcasting of Russian TV channels in the republic were detected by the Armenian Television and Radio Commission, as he reported in an interview with “Sputnik Blizhnee Zarubezhie.”
“There is an intergovernmental agreement signed between the governments of Armenia and Russia on December 30, 2020, based on which the broadcasting of 3 Russian channels in the public multiplex was allowed. It was the First Channel of Russia, “Rossia Planeta” and “Kultura”. And because there was an intergovernmental agreement, licensing was unnecessary; they could broadcast without a license. Therefore, since there is no license issue, the CTR has no authority to revoke the license or open administrative proceedings in case of any violation,” said Tigran Hakobyan in a conversation with Aravot.am.
The CTR Chair added that two authorized bodies from Armenia and Russia are responsible for implementing the points of the intergovernmental agreement; from Armenia, it is the Ministry of High-tech Industry; from the Russian side, it is the Ministry of Digital Development, Communication, and Mass Media.
“In this case, the only function we have according to the agreement is regularly monitoring due to RA legislation. In the last monitoring conducted, which I cannot give because we are passing it on to the competent authorities, there are a bunch of violations: it is both misinformation and hostile speech about Armenia, the people, and the authorities. That is why the noise was raised, because everyone noticed with the naked eye that in the context of the recent events in Karabakh, anti-Armenian propaganda is being carried out by “First Channel World Network” on Russian channels.
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Even if we consider the freedom of speech, the foreign broadcasters of the public multiplex are limited by their content, which, according to our regular monitoring, the Russian channels do not observe,” said the President of the Radio Broadcasting Corporation. He also added that the problem of calling those TV channels to account arose because of this attention.
As for the “Mir” interstate TV station, Tigran Hakobyan mentioned. “Mir” is an interstate television and radio company founded in 1994 by 10 CIS member countries with an equal 10 percent share. Thus, “Mir” is not a foreign broadcaster but one of the founders of the Republic of Armenia. That is because there is a national branch of the “Mir” interstate television and radio company in Armenia, thanks to which valuable news about Armenia is also broadcast on the Russian airwaves. In other words, “Mir” cannot be considered a foreign broadcaster according to our legislation.” Let’s add that according to Article 8 of the agreement on cooperation in the field of mass telecommunications between the governments of RA and RF, the authorized bodies of the parties’ states once a year, and more often if necessary, hold consultations on the current state of cooperation within the framework of the agreement, development directions, and possible disagreements. Article 9 stipulates that the parties may, by mutual agreement, make amendments and additions, which will be formulated in separate protocols. Article 10 of the agreement stipulates that all disputed issues related to the application or interpretation of the agreement between the parties can be resolved through consultations and negotiations.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
