YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
APRIL 7-13, 2006
HIGHLIGHTS:
“PRESS-CLUB+”: PEOPLE’S PARTY OF ARMENIA DISCUSSING FOREIGN POLICY AND
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
PARLIAMENT CONFERENCE IN THE ABSENCE OF PARLIAMENT MEMBERS
“GOLOS ARMENII” REPLIED TO “INFORMATION TERRORISM”
BEAUTY CONTEST AMONG DISABLED
“PRESS-CLUB+”: PEOPLE’S PARTY OF ARMENIA DISCUSSING FOREIGN POLICY AND
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
On April 11 the fifth talk show of “Press Club+” series went on the evening
air of “Yerkir-Media” TV company.
The invitees of the program host, the Chief Editor of “Aravot” daily Aram
Abrahamian were the leaders of People’s Party of Armenia as guests and NGO
representatives as experts. The TV discussion focused on the priorities of
the Armenian foreign policy and the freedom of expression in the country.
It is expected that at 21.00 next Tuesday “Press Club+” will give floor to
the representatives of United Labor Party, sharing their opinions on the
issues of the day.
PARLIAMENT CONFERENCE IN THE ABSENCE OF PARLIAMENT MEMBERS
On April 6-7 at the RA National Assembly an international conference
“Fighting Corruption in Armenia. Strengthening of Cooperation between the RA
National Assembly, Civil Society and the Media” was held. The event was
organized by RA NA, Eurasia Foundation, OSCE, UN Development Program.
On the first day of the conference during the panel sessions the issues of
cooperation between the parliament and the civil society, the role of state
and public oversight bodies and media in the anticorruption activities were
discussed. On the second day debates were held in three working groups. The
working group “Role of the Press in Fighting Corruption” (coordinated by the
President of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian) produced a set of
recommendations, presented below.
The first group of recommendations (items 1 and 2) referred to the
enhancement of the media role, the second group (items 3-5) – to the
establishment of most favorable conditions for media and journalists to
assist this enhancement, the third group (items 6-8) – exclusion of
corruption in the information environment itself.
1. To form a public expert council at the RA NA to assess all the
legislative initiatives on media. To ensure the interaction of NA, the civil
society and media in the process of harmonization of media legislation with
the renewed Constitution.
2. To envisage a periodical TV program cycle on investigating corruption
cases using public information and material resources and implementing
public and expert oversight of the professionalism and objectivity of these
programs.
3. To strengthen the guarantees of legal protection and security of media
and journalists on duty. To eliminate the differences in the punishments
stipulated for the insult of state officials and ordinary citizens, to
abolish imprisonment as punishment for libel. To improve the legislation on
freedom of information and protection of sources, to ensure its application,
eliminating the controversies existing in various laws.
4. To assist the training and retraining of journalists specialized in
corruption reporting and journalistic investigations, to create voluntary
structures of media self-regulation and their public accountability.
5. To assist the protection of journalists’ labor rights, the application of
principles of professional and editorial independence, establishment of
legal mechanisms in the relations between the owners (employers) and the
media professionals.
6. To improve the mechanisms of public oversight of the effectiveness and
targeted use of public and budget funds. To assist the implementation of
antitrust legislation in media system, ensuring the transparency of
ownership.
7. To take steps to ensure real independence of bodies that regulates and
manages the broadcasting sphere. To apply in practice the provisions of the
RA Law “On Television and Radio”, stipulating the possibility of involving
public experts in the conductance of broadcast licensing competitions.
8. To remove from the RA Law “On Postal Communication” and the draft law “On
introducing amendments and additions to the RA Law ‘On Advertising’ ” the
provisions that contain risks of monopoly and corruption.
At the panel session on the first day of the conference one of the foreign
participants asked the NA deputies present in the room to raise their hands.
Not a single hand went up. The Armenian MPs did not honor the media working
group with their presence either. Yet, the main purpose of the conference
was the search for possible ways of cooperation between the National
Assembly and the civil society (as confirmed by the event title, too). In
reality, everything was confined to the discussion of anticorruption issues
between the representatives of the “fourth estate” and the “third sector” –
who have sufficient joint debates at various events with different subject
matter, including the corruption. In this regard one cannot help asking: why
did the conference have to be hosted at the National Assembly? For the
participants to have to go through the security barriers and undergo the
quite unpleasant personal examination procedure?
“GOLOS ARMENII” REPLIED TO “INFORMATION TERRORISM”
On April 8 “Golos Armenii” newspaper apologized to its readers for their
inability to buy at many newspaper stalls the issue of April 6, since, “as
the news vendors explained, all the copies were bought out by unknown people
in the morning”. In the opinion of “Golos Armenii”, the reason of the action
was the article of its correspondent Ara Meliksetian “Human Resources as the
Party Gold”, and “its ‘heroes’ tried not to make it public”.
The article was dealing with numerous violations revealed at “Hayseismshin”
research institute. It said in particular that in late February the
conclusion of the inspection made by the Control Service of the RA President
was sent to RA Minister of Urban Development Aram Harutiunian, however, no
measures were taken. This idleness is explained in the story by the fact
that the Minister of Urban Development and the director of the research
institute (ministerial structure) are members of “Orinats Yerkir” party (Ed.
note: the party is in ruling coalition).
The incident was qualified by the newspaper as “information terrorism” and
in the issue of April 8 repeated the publication of the article “that hit
the target so well”. “Golos Armenii” expressed confidence that “the talk
about the content of the article and the disappearance of the issue will
continue” and a hope that “‘Orinats Yerkir’ will not be rich enough to buy
every print run of ‘GA'”.
BEAUTY CONTEST AMONG DISABLED
On April 6 at the Yerevan House of Chamber Music the award ceremony of the
Third National Beauty Photo Contest among Disabled was held. The contest was
held by “Unison” NGO with the assistance of a number of Armenian companies.
The information support to the event was provided by the Public Television
of Armenia, “Aurora” Radio, “AR”, “Kentron” TV companies and Second Armenian
TV Channel. Such actions, as the organizers believe, help to break the
stereotypes in the society and show that the disability is not an impediment
for the fair sex.
“Miss Beauty”-2006 title (the Grand-Prix of the contest) was awarded to Anna
Martirosian (Yerevan), “Vice Miss Beauty” (the first prize) – to Narineh
Ghukasian (Abovian). The second prize was granted to “Miss Charm” Henrietta
Khachatrian (Echmiadzin). The third award went to “Miss Smile” Marineh
Yeshilian (Yerevan). The award and the memorial gift from Yerevan Press Club
to “Miss Smile” were awarded by a jury member, the YPC Executive Director
Mikhail Diloyan.
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Press Club is required.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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