RFE/RL is not off the air

Not yet, and I think this is too much of a possibility to allow complacency to kick in. Almost everyone expects the result of this bill to be RFE/RL having to broadcast on SW at worst or with a much limited audience on some private FM stations at best.

Anyway, the point is that a clear signal must be sent that many people consider RFE/RL’s contribution to the free dissemination of information inside and from Armenia is too great to risk losing it. I think it has a very important role to play in Armenia as do most people.

Incidentally, a related issue was how the papers were being used by some NGOs conducting media monitoring for the parliamentary election. They were effectively being used as if impartial sources for reporting electoral violations even though the papers themselves were politically partisan, directly linked to opposition groups or at the least sympathetic to them.

Anyway, RFE/RL do report from pro-governmental sources, but not so often from Hayastani Hanrapetutyun. I will agree that as many diverse sources to quote from would be better and advisable. Certainly, it would make the RFE/RL Press Review more useful as a resource. As for Oskanian, I think he probably realizes the damage that will result from having RFE/RL off the air.

However, it is known that the MFA relies on RFE/RL for getting its message out either officially or through “anonymous sources” so I think Oskanian will miss RFE/RL if its activities in the country are curtailed.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian spoke out on Friday in favor of RFE/RL’s continued news reporting in Armenia, saying that it contributes to freedom of speech and democracy in the country.

While declining to directly comment on the controversial RFE/RL-related bill proposed by the Armenian government, Oskanian made it clear that he is against a halt to the daily retransmission of the U.S. broadcaster’s Armenian-language news programs by state radio.

“Right now I just don’t want to think that all of a sudden [Radio] Liberty may be deprived of air,” he told a news conference.

“It will hurt me if [Radio] Liberty stops going on air,” he said. “It will hurt me. Liberty makes its contribution to democracy. It would be unfortunate to see Liberty deprived of air for some reason.”

Oskanian, further noted that he is not the only government minister who thinks so. “I think there are people in the government who share my opinion,” he said without elaborating.

Basically it’s not just Zhamanak Yerevan and the “radical opposition” that are concerned by this development unless you think Oskanian is also a Loony Tunes character as well.

“Zhamanak Yerevan” reports that many pro-government deputies privately admitted on Thursday that they will not defy the government and reject its controversial amendments despite respecting and liking RFE/RL’s news reporting. “As it turned out, the scenario of closing down [Radio] Liberty was already written last winter,” says the paper.

According to “Azg,” there is hardly a better way of discrediting the Armenian parliament majority than ordering its “second-generation reformers” to rubber-stamp the amendments which the paper believes would amount to banning RFE/RL broadcasts in Armenia. Its say all deputies affiliated with the governing Republican, Prosperous Armenia and Dashnaktsutyun parties were strictly instructed to vote for the bill. “Yes, as always, the presidential office found a brilliant solution,” “Azg” comments.

“A fight against free speech,” reads a headline in “Hayk.” The paper says some in the National Assembly feel that with this bill President Robert Kocharian not only tried to “silence the only electronic media outlet not controlled by the authorities” but also damage Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. “After all, the parliament majority, which is supposed to adopt this bill, are members of his HHK,” it explains.

“What was happening in the National Assembly [on Thursday] can hardly be called anything other than a parade of hypocrisy,” writes “Haykakan Zhamanak.” “Yesterday’s extraordinary session of the parliament was fully devoted to finding legal formulations for the upcoming discontinuation of Radio Liberty programs. The hypocrisy was that the parliamentary majority justified the need for Liberty’s closure with calls for democracy and freedom of speech in Armenia.”

“The closure of A1+ and Radio Liberty are part of the same process, and that process will have stricter manifestations,” the owner and director of the TV company pull off the air in 2002, Mesrop Movsesian, tells “Aravot.” Movsesian claims that the authorities plan to impose further restrictions on the media because the latter “will be playing a very important role during the presidential elections.” “Both we and the authorities realize that,” he concludes.

“The authorities have decided to shut down Radio Liberty,” contends “Chorrord Ishkhanutyun.” “Government forces are not even trying to hide that they are solving not a legal or economic but a concrete political issue. Some Republican deputies mumble that all of this has nothing to do with freedom of speech but in the end give up and start justifying their steps with [the need to safeguard] the state’s information security, external security and other circumstances.”

Armenian: (in English letters)
Boghoqi cujc «Azatutyan» radiokayani haykakan tsarajutyan haxordumneri herardzakum@ Hanrain radiojov dadarecnelu dem hulisi 2in zham@ 10:30, Azatutyan hraparakic depi Azgajin Zhoghov

and a rough translation into English:
Protest action for Azatutyan Radio (RFE/RL) and against the termination of the radio service broadcasts through the Armenian National Radio frequency to be held on July 2 at 10:30, starting in Freedom Square headed towards National Assembly.

please spread the word if you believe in the promotion of democracy and freedom of speech in Armenia!!

thanks Onnik for your coverage on this topic. always doin a bloody good job

For Immediate Release

Armenia: Parliament Must Not Silence RFE/RL

Strike Down Proposed Laws Curbing Media Freedoms

(New York, June 29, 2007) – The Armenian parliament should not adopt two draft laws that would effectively ban future broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a key source of independent information in that country, Human Rights Watch said today.

The first, an amendment to the law “On Television and Radio” prohibits retransmission of foreign broadcasts on Armenian public television and radio frequencies. The second, an amendment to the law “On State Taxes” establishes heavy fees for private companies that air foreign broadcasts.

Both draft laws passed a first reading on Friday in the National Assembly of Armenia, but must undergo a second reading, expected on Monday or Tuesday, before they become law.

“These new laws clearly restrict access to a crucial independent news source for many Armenians and deal a serious blow to RFE/RL and to freedom of the media in general,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The parliament should under no circumstances pass this bill in the second reading.”

The parliament’s actions appear to specifically target RFE/RL’s Armenian service, the only foreign broadcaster that relies on Armenian National Radio, the country’s public radio station, to reach the majority of its audience.

RFE/RL is one of the only independent broadcast media outlets remaining in Armenia. Although there is a vibrant print media, the government maintains close control over the much more accessible broadcast media, and recently closed the last independent television station, A1+, in 2002.

RFE/RL is also occasionally broadcast via some private radio stations in the country’s capital, Yerevan, and surrounding regions, but under the proposed laws, private Armenian broadcasters would pay more than US$200 in taxes each time they retransmit a program produced by a foreign media organization. This fee is 70 times more than broadcasters must pay for a locally made program.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, criticized the bills, saying that they infringed Armenia’s commitments to safeguard media pluralism and access to information, and called on the Armenian authorities to drop them. Opposition politicians in Armenia lamented the parliament’s decision to pass the bills and charged the government with trying to control the media.

The two bills are incompatible with Armenia’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 10 of the ECHR guarantees the right “to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” This right can only be restricted for limited and specific reasons such as national security or public safety. The restrictions placed on the rights of expression and imparting of information by the bills do not meet these requirements. The importance of the rights protected by Article 10 has been repeatedly emphasized by the European Court of Human Rights. The court maintains that freedom of expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and that the media plays a pre-eminent role in a state governed by the rule of law. The court insists that any efforts by a government to restrict freedom of expression be strictly scrutinized and the reason convincingly established.

“By passing these laws, Armenia risks violating its international commitments to freedom of expression and the media,” said Cartner. “As Armenia prepares for presidential elections in 2008, the world will certainly be watching to see if the government respects freedom of the media and other freedoms necessary for a free and fair vote.”

The move is not the first effort by the Armenian government to limit independent media. The independent television station A1+ lost its broadcasting license in 2002, after regularly airing criticism of the government, and lost 12 subsequent tenders for television and radio frequencies. In June 2006, A1+, which produced a weekly newspaper and maintains a website, was forced to vacate its offices, after losing a court case in 2005 challenging a notice of eviction.

Human rights groups have reported violence against journalists in retaliation for their work, and in September a court sentenced Arman Babajanian, editor of the opposition newspaper Zhamanak Yerevan, to four years in prison for failing to serve the compulsory two years of military service. Although Babajanian admitted to forging documents in 2002 in order to evade military service, the harsh sentence is suspected to be retribution for the journalist’s persistent criticism of government policies (draft evaders are usually sentenced to between two and three years in prison).

For more information, please contact:

In New York, Jane Buchanan, (English, Russian): +1-212-216-1857; or +1-917-553-4315 (mobile)