Armenian Parliament passes amendment to law on audiovisual media:no plans for closure of any TV channels

YEREVAN, October 22. /ARКА/. The National Assembly of Armenia approved an amendment to the Law "On Audiovisual Media" during its first reading at the session held on Wednesday.

As stated by the bill's author, Taguhi Ghazaryan, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction, the proposal aims to establish a minimum of two public broadcasters. She pointed out that currently, five broadcasters receive funding from state resources, and the adoption of this bill is expected to lead to a more effective allocation of financial resources.

"In recent years, the state has acquired programming worth around 3 billion drams from a limited liability company associated with former public broadcasters without a competitive tender. Moving forward, these funds can be utilized more effectively. The Publicly Useful Media Environment Foundation will allocate the funds designated for cultural and educational content among all television companies within the multiplex," Ghazaryan remarked.

She stressed that all television companies will have equal opportunities to compete for these state funds and to provide a varied array of cultural and educational content.

In response to the concerns raised by opposition MPs, RA Minister of High Technology Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan indicated that the proposed draft does not include provisions for the closure of any television channel.

"The government has positively evaluated the draft, ensuring that the public broadcaster will have at least two slots instead of three," Hayrapetyan stated.

It was previously reported that amendments to this law could potentially result in the closure of the church-affiliated television channel Shoghakat, run by the Armenian Apostolic Church.-0-