THE UNACCOMPLISHED REFORM OR STRASBOURG IS HAPPY WITH US

The ratification of legislative amendments on television and radio as signedby the RA President on May 20, 2009, marked the completion of the formationof Armenian broadcast legislation - a process that had lasted for more than12 years. One can state it responsibly that the practice of total controlexercised by the power structures over the broadcast sphere received thecomplete legislative backing they wished so much, with the blessing of theCouncil of Europe experts and the parliamentary opposition. Why is it we speak about a 12-year process? Because in March 1997 the firstversion of the draft law on television and radio went through the firsthearing at the parliament. Having been criticized then by the journalisticassociations, including Yerevan Press Club, as well as the representativesof the Council of Europe, foreign experts, this version was revoked. Thethree-year work on the draft that ensued did resemble a lot the situation ofthe past year: YPC, Internews and their partners were invited to debates, wewere asked for ideas and proposals, yet only those of them were taken intoaccount that did not impede the main goal - to eliminate every chance forthe independence of the broadcast regulating bodies, to keep theuncontrolled TV and radio companies out of air. Both at that stage and now the work on the drafts improved the appearance,yet the essence never changed. As a result, even with 50 TV channelsavailable in the country, the Armenian public, political forces, experts,the TV viewers are extremely unhappy with what they see on the air. The lackof real pluralism, the violations of legal and ethical norms that receive nodue response, the open manipulation of public opinion to the benefit ofprivate interest, neglect of the cultural, education, information functions- these are the specifics of the present-day broadcasting, including thepublic service broadcasting. The list of these vices, due, among other things, to the ineffectivelegislative framework, was expanded in September 2008 to include aninnovation with a hilarious justification - a ban on broadcast licensingcompetitions. Thus, for two years' time (and the authors of the idea obviousintend this period to become infinite) even the technical opportunity to getsome competition in TV and radio industry is made impossible. A radical broadcasting reform was necessary to get rid from this bunch ofproblems, its first step being the improvement of the legislative framework.Still the new package of amendments that came into force has not eradicatedany of the issues constantly raised by the media community of Armenia andinternational organizations. Firstly, the mechanisms prescribed by the amended legislation, by theirdefinition cannot enhance the independence of the National Commission onTelevision and Radio (NCTR), the body that regulates the activities of TVand radio companies. Secondly, the amendments enforced do not in any way contribute to the realreform of the Public TV and Radio Company, its inclusion into the legalregulation field, to the enactments of its responsibility and publicaccountability principles. In other words, Armenia to this day does not havea true public service broadcaster, the establishment of which was assumed asa commitment of the country to the Council of Europe. Thirdly, the adopted package of draft laws does not solve the task offorming legal conditions for holding impartial and transparent broadcastlicensing competitions. It does not contain any guarantees against thearbitrary decisions of the National Commission and does not call for ajustification to be given by the members for the selection made. Fourthly and finally, despite the growing and obvious weakness of argumentsto support the moratorium on frequency distribution under an inventedpretext of broadcast digitalization, the provision on freezing thecompetitions remains intact. This cannot be interpreted otherwise than asthe reluctance of authorities to allow on air any broadcaster out of theirpolitical control, unreadiness to draw conclusions from the judgment of theEuropean Court of Human Rights upon the suit of "Meltex" LLC (the founder of"A1+" TV company) of June 17, 2008, and to implement the Resolution 1620(2008) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The legislative amendments that do not entail the basic solution of theissues above can only be seen as cosmetic, as an imitation of reforms thatdo not in any way contribute to the improvement of the situation on the TVand radio air of Armenia. The coverage of municipal elections in Yerevan,held on May 31, 2009, confirmed that the main negative trends of thebroadcasting are still in place, that the choir of TV voices obeys the willof one single conductor. Whatever the TV journalists did during this period- whether negative or positive - was prescribed from "above". And if thistime the Yerevan Press Club monitoring recorded a certain improvement in thecoverage, as compared to the presidential elections of 2008, this does notin any way mean that in future the prescription from "above" will not changeand the behavior pattern of broadcast media would not again deteriorate tothe level of 2008 or even below than that. The adoption of the new draft law package could have been viewed morecalmly; after all, not everything is lost and the law can always be amended.Yet this is the very problem, there are no more incentives or commitmentsfor the Armenian MPs to address the broadcasting legislation, and hardly anywill come up in the nearest future. Today they are entitled to state thatthe long-lasting process of harmonizing this part of the legislation withthe Constitution, amended in 2005, is more or less complete. Themedia-related provisions of the Main Law, strongly protested by thejournalistic association at the time of their developments, did fulfilltheir mission, as intended by the authors: they became the convenientjustification to limit the possibilities for forming the truly independentbroadcast regulatory bodies. It did take the lawmakers of today a certaindemagogical effort in interpreting the constitutional provisions to fullyexclude the chance for having independent regulation. However, the amendedConstitution is no longer a pretext to address the broadcast legislation,and the chances that the Government or the parliament will today revisit theprincipal issued of TV and radio regulation are nil today. Another factor that induced the Armenian authorities to occasionallyremember the legislative regulation of broadcasting were the commitments tothe Council of Europe and the criticism coming from internationalorganizations. However the authors of the new package of amendments managedto get the assessment from the Council of Europe expert that they have everyreason to treat as positive. Therefore, the task can be considered asfulfilled and for the first time in the 12-year history of the Armenianbroadcast law the members of Armenian parliament are free from theircommitment to the CoE partners to think about new changes. Moreover, thepositive assessment of the Council of Europe expert today plays the role ofa certain shield from the criticism of other international and localorganizations: Strasbourg is happy with us; the rest is of littleimportance! The content of the assessment itself raises a number of issues, voiced, inparticular, in the statement of journalistic organizations of April 9, 2009.The Council of Europe expert that reviewed the package of the draft laws onregulating the broadcasting, did not take into account the recommendationsmade in the PACE Resolutions 1532 (2007), 1609 (2008), 1620 (2008) and 1643(2009). Referring to Armenia's implementation of its commitments to the CoEand the functioning of democratic institutions in the country, theseResolutions define the current reform agenda, also in media. Therecommendations raise the problems of independence of the regulatory body,the transparency of broadcast licensing competitions, the possibleparticipation of "A1+" TV company in them, the moratorium on frequencydistribution. While considering the package of the drafts without takinginto account the four last PACE recommendations on Armenia, the Council ofEurope expert, on the one hand, bypassed some questionable clauses of thelegislation in force (firstly, the introduced ban on the frequencydistribution), on the other, she assessed a whole range of legislativeinnovations out of the context of existing problems in the recent practice(lack of transparency and impartiality of broadcast licensing competitions,lack of any forms of accountability of the Public TV and Radio Company tothe society, etc.). The expert welcomes the amendments to Article 50 of the RA Law "OnTelevision and Radio" that stipulates the provision of "full justification"of competition participants that were refused a license, referring to theappropriate clause in the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights ofJune 17, 2008 on "A1+" case. Yet in essence nothing new in terms ofjustifying the refusal of the license is proposed by the new draft, thereare still no mechanisms top define the selection criteria for NCTR members. One could quote many examples of the insufficiently profound analysis of thedraft law package by the CoE expert. Yet the problem lies not in theparticulars, but in the method through which the media legislation is formedin Armenia, and the role of international expert assessment in the process.Despite the fact that a working group has been established at thespecialized Standing Committee of the RA National Assembly, involving localexperts, the recent drafts were only discussed by this group twice, and onlyon the stages when the discussions could not have any significant influenceon the content of the drafts. The first debate centered on general issuesand was purely formal in nature, and the second one was summoned a few daysbefore the second hearing of the package, when the authors were alreadyadamant in their approach. In between international experts met anddiscussed the drafts only with the MPs interested in their advancement.Objections, comment, explanations of the problems regarding the practicalimplementation of a certain clause that representatives of Armenian mediacommunity could share, public debates are of no interest to anyone any more.Such a closed process of legislation formation can bear no other fruit thanwhat we have today. In other words, the civil society institutes are depriveof any real chance to influence the principal decision-making in thelegislation. Participation in such imitations, membership in various boards and groupsset up for the sake of appearances only has always been contrary to theprinciples of Yerevan Press Club, and, as it has already been stated,representatives of our organization will no longer participate in theworking group on media legislation at the RA NA Standing Committee onScience, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Issues. This decision can onlybe reconsidered in case of a dramatic change in the attitude that theArmenian MPs have to lawmaking. Meanwhile, we so far observe a reverse process. Another proof of that is oneof the earliest efforts to institutionalize the Public Council, formedrecently by presidential decree, in the renewed broadcast legislation.Having given this structure, seen as nothing more but a showoff substitutefor the civil society, a role in forming the broadcast regulatory bodies,the Armenian legislators made another step towards replacing the truedemocratic processes by the imitation. Finally, the proactive and principled stance of the opposition - yet anotherfactor (along with the political will of the authorities, competentinvolvement of international organizations, attention to the proposals oflocal NGOs and expert community) that could contribute to the healthy andconstructive lawmaking, based on the competition of ideas and approaches -failed to work in the case of broadcast legislation amendments enforced inMay 2009, either. How does the consensus of "Heritage" faction with theruling coalition on the issue go hand in hand with its criticism of thesituation in broadcasting and demands to get "A1+" TV company back on theair, remains a mystery. The new opportunity to break down the blockade of Armenian air shouldapparently be expected only when those who could but did not wish to displayprinciples at this stage of legislative reforms face new problems inbroadcasting. And these, judging from the attitude towards the freedom ofexpression issues in Armenia, will hardly take long in coming...

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Headlines for June 18, 2009

THE UNACCOMPLISHED REFORM OR STRASBOURG IS HAPPY WITH US
The ratification of legislative amendments on television and radio as signedby the RA President on May 20, 2009, marked the completion of the formationof Armenian broadcast legislation - a process that ...
PROSPEROUS ARMENIAÂ€™S VOTES NOT STOLEN?
The Prosperous Armenia party doesn't exclude the fact that it may start negotiations with the Armenian National Congress. "Nothing is impossible in politics and 1 or 2 episodes may become a turning point. ...
KARABAKH'S CALL ON AZERBAIJAN
Fires are breaking out from time to time at different sector of the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh starting in June. According to information by the press service of the Ministry ...
TEN DAYS TO RELEASE SASUN MIKAELYAN
The court immediately dismissed NA Deputy Sasun Mikaelyan's trial today after the ten minute delay. Mikaelyan did not show up to court today due to health conditions. Judge Hrair Sargsyan was supposed ...
48 MILLION FOR ARMENIA
The U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for U.S. foreign aid policy voted to maintain U.S. economic assistance to Armenia at last year's level of $48 million and to increase humanitarian ...
HAKOB HAKOBYAN: Â€I AM NOT OFFENDED BY ANYONEÂ€
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ADDRESSED SYRIAN ARMENIANS
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TO STUDY IN KALININGRAD?
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EARTHQUAKE NOT FAR FROM YEREVAN
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EVALUATED
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THEY WILL TELL IN ADVANCE IN CASE OF DANGER
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NEXT BROADCAST AT 9 P.M.
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THEY CANÂ€™T DELAY FOREVER
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