ARMENIA: STATE TIGHTENS MEDIA CONTROLS
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Dec 20 2007
Harassment of provincial television station coincides with start of
election campaign.
By Ofelia Kocharian and Taguhi Tovmasian in Yerevan (CRS No. 424
20-Dec-07)
The most popular television station in Armenia’s second city,
Gyumri, is facing closure as a result of what it says is officially
orchestrated pressure, prompted by its favourable coverage of the
leading opposition candidate in the presidential election campaign.
The crisis faced by Gala television station comes as the state tightens
its overall control of television ahead of the February 19 poll,
in which Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian is the officially-favoured
candidate.
Gala, a privately-owned channel, has a big audience in Gyumri, which
has a population of around 150,000. The station has been accused of
tax evasion by the authorities, and its assets and bank accounts have
been frozen.
However, the station’s owner Vahan Khachatrian, says its problems
started after Gala broadcast the speech that former president Levon
Ter-Petrosian made in September announcing his return to public
politics. Ter-Petrosian has now registered as a candidate for the
election.
Khachatrian told IWPR that he did not support any particular party
and gave airtime to all politicians.
Because of the company’s problems, all 37 of its advertising clients
have pulled out. "For over a month, we’ve had no advertisements,"
said Khachatrian. "The tax bodies have imposed a fine of 26 million
drams [86,000 US dollars] on us, but I am not going to pay it, and
we have already lodged a counter-claim in court."
Khachatrian said he had applied repeatedly to Gyumri’s municipal
authorities to be allowed to buy or lease the television tower his
company has been using for its broadcasts, but without success.
However, in November, the 100-metre TV tower, which for the last
two decades had no official owner, was suddenly announced to be the
property of the city hall.
"I had been told the tower belonged to no one and I could do whatever I
pleased with it," he said. "I repaired it, fitted it with equipment and
opened the TVcompany – and now the city hall says it needs to privatise
it. I declare that I am ready to buy or lease it at any moment."
At a court hearing, Levon Barseghian, chairman of the Asparez
journalists’ club, which has set up a support committee for the
station, proposed that the city authorities cut a three-way deal with
Asparez and Gala and allow the tower to be leased at a reasonable rate,
to include back-payments for previous use.
The mayor of Gyumri later said a deal could be reached, but on
December 18, an offer was made that Barseghian said was exorbitantly
expensive. He said Gala was told to pay 200,000 drams for permission
to mount antennas on the tower, instead of the 30-40,000 drams that
is the going rate, and it was also asked for a back-payment of 5.4
million drams which, at 18,000 dollars, would be enough to build a
new television tower.
Gala is a rarity in Armenia, where the electronic media are mostly
controlled by government allies and do not step out of line. Around
ten television stations generally give the authorities supportive
news coverage. Two stations that did provide alternative voices, A1+
and Noyan Tapan, have lost their broadcasting licenses.
Referring to the tax claims made against Gala, Boris Navasardian,
chairman of the Yerevan Press Club, said, "Any television company
– and especially one based in Yerevan – would find itself in big
trouble if it was presented with a document like this concerning its
tax payments on advertising income."
Media monitoring carried out in October and November by the Team
research centre, with assistance from the Yerevan Press Club, showed
that pre-election news coverage on local television was dominated
by information about two candidates – Prime Minister Sarkisian and
ex-president Ter-Petrosian. While most of the coverage of the former
was favourable, that of Ter-Petrosian was very negative.
"If the prime minister was mentioned by all the channels in a
positive rather than negative context – 56 positive comments against
two negative ones – ), it was the other way around with the first
president, six positive comments against 111 negative ones," said
Team’s interim report on the monitoring exercise.
For example, on the day that Ter-Petrosian held a big rally in
central Yerevan in November, the Armenian Channel Two headed its
news bulletin with reports about visits made by the prime minister,
the arrival of delegations in Armenia and other official news. Then
came international news, including a report about a demonstration in
Australia involving 200 protestors.
Ter-Petrosian’s rally, which attracted many thousands of protestors,
was the penultimate news item and was less than one minute long.
There were long-range shots of the rally but no recording of what
the opposition candidate said. Then came three minutes of vox pops
giving only negative views from members of the public, who said they
did not like Ter-Petrosian and his 1991-98 presidency brought them
nothing but misery.
"The Shant television company and the Armenian Channel Two paid
particular attention to one political figure; they both assigned more
than a half of their airtime to Serge Sarkisian," said the report.
Both officials and the TV stations concerned deny there is a problem.
Eduard Sharmazanov, press secretary of the ruling Republican Party,
said television companies covered whatever they had available,
and reporting on the prime minister’s activities did not mean they
were biased.
The media monitoring suggested that Armenia Television, which belongs
to diaspora businessman Jerard Kafesjian, gave the least coverage to
opposition candidates. But Gagik Mkrtchian, director of the station’s
news programmes, assured IWPR that they were providing airtime to
all candidates and were under no "pressure from above".
Aleksan Harutyunian, chairman of the board of the Public Television
and Radio Company – Armenia’s main television station – rejected
accusations that the electronic media are merely obeying orders handed
down from the presidential administration.
"I don’t think that any link in the chain, including the presidential
administration, applies any pressure or issues orders," he told IWPR.
"I give everyone airtime equally."
Critics say Harutyunian himself is too close to government because
he used to be head of President Robert Kocharian’s administration
and secretary of the Security Council.
Opposition politicians say they are frustrated by their inability
to get their message across. According to former foreign minister
Alexander Arzumanian, "No serious opposition figure can express
his views through these outlets. Our media serve a totalitarian,
tyrannical regime."
The monitoring revealed that there was only one TV station that
provides relatively independent news coverage – Yerkir Media, which
broadcasts mostly in the capital and belongs to the nationalist
Dashnaktsutiun party, a member of the ruling coalition.
Ter-Petrosian – who banned the Dashnaktsutiun party when he was
in office – has nevertheless received extensive coverage from the
channel, whose director Gegham Manukian says "pressure is put only
on those who want it".
"During all this time, our company has not received a single hint,
threat or recommendation as to what we should air and what we
shouldn’t," Manukian told IWPR.
Taguhi Tovmasian is a correspondent for the Chorrord Iskhanutyun
newspaper and Ofelia Kocharian is a correspondent for the Iskakan
Iravunq newspaper in Yerevan.