Epress.am News from Armenia
A1+ President Mesrop Movsisyan doesn’t think that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan personally relates to A1+, the way former Armenian president Robert Kocharian did, but it’s obvious that now too there’s a political position.
Speaking to journalists today, Movsisyan spoke on A1+’s chances in Armenia’s upcoming broadcast licensing competitions.
“We are participating with the intention of winning the competition, even though unequal conditions were created from the beginning. A1+ has undergone monitoring by an international organization, which assures [us] that our programs are quite good,” he said.
The A1+ president noted that, becoming familiar with their competitor Armnews’ proposed programming, he came to the conclusion that it’s like a really good fairy tale.
“Armnews works with Armenia TV company’s technical resources and with its staff. This is a serious violation, and I don’t understand how Mr. Amalyan doesn’t notice this. From this, it also becomes obvious that there’s a clear political decision, to once again not allocate broadcasting [license] to A1+,” said Movsisyan. Note that Grigor Amalyan is the chair of Armenia’s National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR).
Recall that 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 Armenia’s NCTR than those of its competitors.
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.
It’s important to note that a representative of Urbat (“Friday”) press club, where today’s press conference took place, mentioned that an Armnews representative was to have participated in the news conference, but for whatever reason, was not present.
Photo: Azatutyun Radio (RFE/RL Armenia)