Published since 07.2002
Published on April 04, 2008
TAXING TIMES: NEWSPAPERS NOT FRIENDLY TO GOVERNMENT GET VISITS FROM INSPECTORS
- Last week, when staff writers of the radical opposition Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper, as usual, were working on some pungent stories on the government, tax inspectors visited the paper’s office and handed a notice to the editor. Three days later tax inspections began. Since March 1, at least six newspapers have received such orders. Among them are five oppositional newspapers and one pro-government. Routinely, accountants present tax reports quarterly and if tax authorities have doubts regarding their credibility they may conduct a financial audit at three days’ notice. “With that notice paper they came in and said: ‘Do not think it’s something different’,” Chorrord Ishkhanutyun editor-in-chief Shogher Matevosyan told ArmeniaNow. “But to be frank, such a behavior of the authorities does not even seem to be laughable anymore. How can we possibly not think of ‘something different’? In 2001, they also tried to silence our voice using such methods, but they failed.” The daily, which often goes beyond simply criticizing the authorities by publishing materials ridiculing them, has been under financial scrutiny since last week. “They come, copy out our accounts. They can check. We have nothing to hide. But it is clear that it is a political order, which does not frighten us, though,” says Matevosyan. In recent days, taxmen have also visited other print media who have been radically pro-opposition or have taken a critical stance on the government. One of Armenia’s best-selling dailies, Haykakan Zhamanak (boasting a daily circulation of 10,500 copies), whose editor-in-chief Nikol Pashinyan is an ally of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan and has been in hiding since the March 1 events, also received a notice from tax authorities. Haykakan Zhamanak director Anna Hakobyan told ArmeniaNow that the daily works strictly in keeping with the law and as one of the large taxpayers only last year paid more than 10 million drams (about $32,500) in taxes. As Hakobyan says, it is “more than some television companies paid”. “Such ‘tax inspections’ have not been conducted since Haykakan Zhamanak was established in 1999,” said Hakobyan, adding that she did not allow inspections since the notification was made in a way not corresponding to the law. “If they come with a notice again, I said they were free to take a magnifying glass and make inspections. We make a splendid job and have nothing to hide. But it is obvious that it is a political order.” However, unlike Hakobyan, in response to ArmeniaNow’s inquiry, the government-affiliated State Tax Service said that there can be no word about any political factor in this case. According to the Service, regular inspections began at the Chorrord Ishkhanutyun (circulation 8,000), Aravot (circulation 6,100), Zhamanak Yerevan (circulation 4,080), Haykakan Zhamanak newspapers, as well as at the Gind printing house, the Gind classified ads paper (circulation 10,000) and the pro-government Hayots Ashkharh daily (circulation 3,500). “No inspections at our paper have started yet. Touch wood, we have not yet received any notice,” Hayots Ashkharh editor-in-chief Gagik Mkrtchyan told ArmeniaNow. However, those at the State Tax Service also insist that inspections at opposition papers will be conducted like a normal process. “This is not about politics,” said an employee of the State Tax Service who asked for his name not to be published. “Inspections were started for example at the Gind printing house, or at the Hayots Ashkharh daily. What is Gind’s connection with politics?” The Gind newspaper of the Gind printing house, which is published once a week and is the most popular paper for classified ads, even though is not connected with “politics”, but it is at Gind’s printing facilities that pro-opposition newspapers such as Haykakan Zhamanak, Hayk, Zhamanak Yerevan, Chorrord Ishkhanutyun and others are printed. There is no information yet about immediate plans for such inspections at another leading publisher Tigran Mets. “What is being done is an attack on free speech, public freedom and people’s free thinking,” says Matevosyan. She says the government must have liked the state-of-emergency days when websites were blocked and papers were allowed to publish only what was “suitable for the authorities.” During those days prestigious international structures joined in the outcry against media restrictions, urging the authorities to remove the provisions of the emergency rule decree that restricted media activities. But now that the state of emergency has been formally removed, many media representatives fear that in the final analysis nothing has changed. “It is clear that in terms of information flow those days were blissful for the authorities, but they still cannot silence our voice with these ‘tax inspections’,” Matevosyan says. Artur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor-based regional branch of the Armenian Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, draws parallels between the “tax inspections” of newspapers and the recent developments around Gyumri-based GALA TV when a hefty fine was imposed on the only television company not controlled by the authorities for providing its air to the opposition. He says that this way the authorities will try to exert pressure on circles that are independent. “I am pretty sure that news websites will become next targets, which they will try to make controllable like television companies today through inspections, bribing, pressures,” Sakunts said. “Everything will be done to create grounds for seeming legitimacy. However, such means willy-nilly lead to an impasse.”
- Marianna Grigoryan
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Today in Armenian history- 1820 Birth of Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimyan "Hairik" in Van (Western Armenia). He died in 1907.
- 1915 Death of Arshak Vramian, a representative of the Central Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party.
- 1920 Genocide of the Armenians in Sooshee (Gharabagh).
- 1922 Death of Leopold Favri, benefactor and Swiss-Armenian armenologist. He supported orphanages in the Armenian provinces.
- 1945 Death of Vahan Tekeyan, writer, speaker, and public figure. He was born in 1878.
- 1957 Death of actor Ashot Shaghatoonee. He was born in 1882.
- 1995 Garegin I elected Catholicos of the Armenian Church. He became the 131st Spiritual Leader of Armenian Holy Apostolic Church.
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