Epress.am News from Armenia
A1+ President Mesrop Movsisyan (pictured) doesn’t see a political subtext in actor Karen Janibekyan resigning from the People’s TV foundation Board of Trustees. As told to Epress.am by Movsisyan, actor Karen Janibekyan resigned from the board, citing lack of time and a busy schedule.
“He’s quite busy; he wasn’t able to participate in a few of the board meetings. His request to resign from the board was accepted fine by the rest of the board members,” said the A1+ president.
Local Armenian daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) published a story today in which, according to information they received, the ruling elite asked Janibekyan to break his ties with the foundation, and under this pressure, the actor quite quickly did.
Recall that the People’s TV foundation, launched on Oct. 18, aims to promote freedom of expression and to support A1+ TV company, which is taking part in the broadcast licensing competitions. As it has been reported, the competitions, announced by the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR) on July 20, 2010, are held in Armenia for the first time and are stipulated by the digital switchover from analogue broadcasting, according to the Yerevan Press Club.
People’s TV intends to organize a fundraising, which will help to determine the potential audience of A1+, and consecutively, the social demand on resuming its broadcast.
A1+ was deprived of its broadcasting license in April 2002. The TV company had further taken part in all the broadcast licensing competitions, but every time its bids were scored lower by the NCTR than those of its rivals. On June 17, 2008, the European Court of Human Rights released its judgment on the case of the founder of A1+ TV company, Meltex LLC, and its President Mesrop Movsisyan vs Republic of Armenia. In the ECHR ruling, the refusals to grant a broadcast license to Meltex LLC were recognized to be a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, that is, of the right of the applicant to freely impart information and ideas.