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YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
MARCH 25-31, 2011
HIGHLIGHTS:
YPC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE REPORT FOR 2010
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND E-VOTING
RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MP GOES TO LAW WITH "YERKIR" DAILY
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DAY CELEBRATED IN GYUMRI FOR THE THIRD TIME
"ARAVOT" PRESENTED THE WINNERS OF COMPETITIONS FOR YEREVAN TV CHANNELS AND
STARTED A NEW ARTICLE SERIES
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS NAMED "THE BEST IN PROFESSION"
YPC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE REPORT FOR 2010
In compliance with Article 12 "Transparency of financial sources" of the RA
Law "On Mass Communication", we present the 2010 financial report of Yerevan
Press Club Weekly Newsletter and the website http://www.ypc.am
In 2010, a total of 4,106,000 AMD was spent for the publication of YPC
Weekly Newsletter and the support of the website http://www.ypc.am in the
English and Russian languages.
The whole sum was covered by a grant provided by Open Society
Foundations-Armenia.
According to the RA Law "On Public Organizations", the report on financial
activities of Yerevan Press Club for 2010 is placed on YPC website
www.ypc.am in the "Structure" section.
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND E-VOTING
On March 29 another program from "E-Club" weekly cycle went on the online
broadcast of "A1+" TV company (www.a1plus.am). The "E-Club" is produced by
Yerevan Press Club in cooperation with "A1+" TV company under "Alternative
Resources in Media" project, supported by USAID.
The information and education blocs, particularly, dealt with the new
application of www.a1plus.am "With Your Own Eyes", the results of the spring
online school olympiad, held by "Mkhitar Sebastatsi" Educational Center, and
the competition for creating the website logo of the US Embassy in Armenia,
announced on Facebook. One of the plots regarded the most popular online
topics for the previous week - the political starvation action of Raffi
Hovhannisian, Chairman of "Heritage" party, at the Liberty Square of
Yerevan, and the victory of the best chess player of Armenia Levon Aronian
at the International Chess Tournament of Monte Carlo. The guests of the
discussion part of "E-Club" - Avetik Ishkhanian, Chairman of Helsinki
Committee of Armenia, and Abram Bakhchagulian, Secretary of Central
Electoral Commission, considered the opportunities of holding an e-voting in
Armenia as a means of enhancing the voters' trust towards the elections.
The next "E-Club" will be aired on "A1+" on April 5.
RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MP GOES TO LAW WITH "YERKIR" DAILY
On March 25 the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash
administrative districts of Yerevan started hearing the suit of Tigran
Arzakantsian, RA National Assembly MP, member of "Republican Party of
Armenia" faction, versus "'Yerkir' Editorial Office" LLC - founder and
publisher of "Yerkir" daily. The reason of the suit became the piece about
Tigran Arzakantsian, appeared in "Yerkir" on January 13, 2011 within the
column "131 Faces and the Masks" (the given cycle presents the Armenian MPs
in alphabetical order). Tigran Arzakantsian had sent a refutation text to
the newspaper, and since it was not published, he went to law. The plaintiff
demands to refute the information discrediting his honor and dignity, oblige
the daily to publish the court decision on the case, exact 3 million AMD
(about $ 8,200) from the defendant as a compensation for libel and
defamation, as well as compensate the court expenses of 568,000 AMD.
At the session of March 25 the party of the plaintiff specified the
contested words and expressions in the piece, assessed as libel or
defamation.
On March 26 "Yerkir", upon its own initiative, stored an editorial on the
front page, entitled "Refutation". The daily refuted the words and
expressions that insulted the MP. The editorial ended with a question: "Did
you believe?"
The next court session is appointed on April 11.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DAY CELEBRATED IN GYUMRI FOR THE THIRD TIME
On March 25, the Freedom of Speech Day was celebrated in "October" cinema of
Gyumri. The event was organized by "Asparez" Journalists Club of Gyumri and
was marked in the second Armenian biggest town for already the third year.
On this occasion four media representatives received memorable gifts: Anush
Martirosian, correspondent of Radio "Free Europe"/Radio "Liberty" Armenian
Service - for covering human rights issues; Inga Zarafian, President of
"EcoLur" news NGO - for prompt coverage of environmental issues and
contribution to http://ecolur.org; Satenik Vantsian, correspondent of Radio
"Free Europe"/Radio "Liberty" Armenian Service - for covering issues on
protection of social interests; Larisa Paremuzian, correspondent of "Hetq"
online publication - for achievements in investigative journalism.
The Freedom of Speech Day was found in 2009 to mark the settlement of the
situation with "GALA" TV company of Gyumri: the payment of tax liability by
founder of "GALA", "CHAP" LLC, which almost put the TV company on the verge
of closing down. The funds for repaying the debt were donated by individuals
and organizations, both Armenian and international. The tax inspections at
"CHAP" LLC and the following lawsuits started, as soon as, on October 22,
2007, the "CHAP" owner Vahan Khachatrian announced about the attempts of
various power agencies to exert pressure on "GALA".
"ARAVOT" PRESENTED THE WINNERS OF COMPETITIONS FOR YEREVAN TV CHANNELS AND
STARTED A NEW ARTICLE SERIES
"Aravot" daily continues the article series which examine the applications
of the digital broadcast competition winners. The applications copies were
provided by National Commission on Television and Radio on the request of
Anna Israelian, the series author and "Aravot" observer.
The pieces of March 25 and 29, 2011 dealt with application of the winner of
competition No.11 (for Yerevan TV channels of international/current affairs
profile) "ArmNews" CJSC - founder of "ArmNews" TV channel. As it has been
reported, in this competition the opponent of "ArmNews" was "A1+" founder,
"Meltex" LLC. On December 16, 2010 the National Commission on Television and
Radio assessed the competition package of "ArmNews" with 44 points, while
"A1+" received 2 points. The NCTR decision on competition No.11 stated that
the financial sources, claimed by "Meltex", "cannot be considered
sufficient, given that the significant part of the supporting documents on
the financial assistance (...) is forged and unjustified". Namely, this fact
rendered impossible for "A1+" to implement a complete broadcast in the
digital network in Yerevan, assured the NCTR (see YPC Weekly Newsletter,
December 17-23, 2010).
The series author Anna Israelian explained that while analyzing the
"ArmNews" application she had not used the copy provided by NCTR, but the
facsimile of the whole document package, which was granted to "A1+" founder
by the NCTR in a judicial order (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
January 10-20, 2011). As the series author informed this was stipulated by
the fact that "currently the NCTR considers it inappropriate" to grant the
documents enclosed with the application.
By reminding that NCTR condemned "A1+" founder in having deficient and
obviously forged documents in the application, Anna Israelian stressed that
the application of "ArmNews" also contains "numerous shortcomings and
unconformities". Particularly, many contracts, concluded between "ArmNews"
and private persons, claimed as correspondents of the TV channel, are not
attested with a signature and a seal. The pieces on competition No.11 are
attended by the photos of some of the contracts. It should be noted that
even the first article of the series on competition No.1 winner, founder of
"Armenia" TV channel ("Armenia TV" CJSC), mentioned about the presence of
the same documents in applications of "ArmNews" and "Armenia". This,
according to "Aravot", demonstrates the well-known fact - the companies have
the same assets (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 11-17, 2011).
On March 30, 2011 "Aravot" presented the application of the winner of
competition No.15 (for TV channels of Yerevan of general profile) "Shark"
LLC, founder of "Hay TV" channel. Thus, the daily has analyzed all the
applications of the winners of competitions for Yerevan TV channels, except
the ones of No.12, 13 É 14, held for rebroadcasting companies.
Since March 31 "Aravot" started a new article series, "They Will Be
Broadcast in the Regions", dealing with the broadcast licensing competitions
for regional TV channels of general profile. The first piece of the series
regards the applications of competitions No.16 and 17 - "Tavush" LLC (Tavush
region) and "Fortuna" LLC (Lori region), respectively. The series author
Anna Israelian specifically noted that even though one of the co-owners of
"Tavush" LLC Samvel Sahakian holds the smaller part of the shares, he has
committed to implement a business program and to invest a sizeable sum in
the development of the TV channel. Anna Israelian stressed that the
documents, enclosed with the application, reveal that Samvel Sahakian is the
Executive Director of "Masis Tobacco" company - part of "Grand Holding"
group, owned by the Vardanian family. It is known that the Vardanian family
is the owner of "'AR' TV Company" LLC, which won at competition No.10 (for
Yerevan TV channels of youth/educational profile).
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS NAMED "THE BEST IN PROFESSION"
On March 30 in Moscow at the Central House of Journalists the award ceremony
of the International Journalistic Competition "The Best in Profession" was
held. Among the winners were two Armenian journalists: Gor Grigorian,
correspondent of Radio "Van", in "The Best Radio Reportage" nomination - for
the radio reportages "Football Reportage", "A Story about War", "Letters to
Pushkin"; director Armen Yeritsian in "The Best TV Plot" nomination - for
the documentary "The Last Tightrope Dancer of Armenia". Another
representative of Armenia was named laureate of the competition: Hayk
Badalian, correspondent of "Photolur" agency, in "The Best Photo Work"
nomination - for the photo "This Is How I Live". The competition was
organized by the International Confederation of Journalists Unions. One of
the jury members was Boris Navasardian, Yerevan Press Club President.
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]
Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]
Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.ypc.am
From: A. Papazian
MARCH 25-31, 2011
HIGHLIGHTS:
YPC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE REPORT FOR 2010
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND E-VOTING
RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MP GOES TO LAW WITH "YERKIR" DAILY
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DAY CELEBRATED IN GYUMRI FOR THE THIRD TIME
"ARAVOT" PRESENTED THE WINNERS OF COMPETITIONS FOR YEREVAN TV CHANNELS AND
STARTED A NEW ARTICLE SERIES
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS NAMED "THE BEST IN PROFESSION"
YPC WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE REPORT FOR 2010
In compliance with Article 12 "Transparency of financial sources" of the RA
Law "On Mass Communication", we present the 2010 financial report of Yerevan
Press Club Weekly Newsletter and the website http://www.ypc.am
In 2010, a total of 4,106,000 AMD was spent for the publication of YPC
Weekly Newsletter and the support of the website http://www.ypc.am in the
English and Russian languages.
The whole sum was covered by a grant provided by Open Society
Foundations-Armenia.
According to the RA Law "On Public Organizations", the report on financial
activities of Yerevan Press Club for 2010 is placed on YPC website
www.ypc.am in the "Structure" section.
"E-CLUB" CYCLE: INTERNET AND E-VOTING
On March 29 another program from "E-Club" weekly cycle went on the online
broadcast of "A1+" TV company (www.a1plus.am). The "E-Club" is produced by
Yerevan Press Club in cooperation with "A1+" TV company under "Alternative
Resources in Media" project, supported by USAID.
The information and education blocs, particularly, dealt with the new
application of www.a1plus.am "With Your Own Eyes", the results of the spring
online school olympiad, held by "Mkhitar Sebastatsi" Educational Center, and
the competition for creating the website logo of the US Embassy in Armenia,
announced on Facebook. One of the plots regarded the most popular online
topics for the previous week - the political starvation action of Raffi
Hovhannisian, Chairman of "Heritage" party, at the Liberty Square of
Yerevan, and the victory of the best chess player of Armenia Levon Aronian
at the International Chess Tournament of Monte Carlo. The guests of the
discussion part of "E-Club" - Avetik Ishkhanian, Chairman of Helsinki
Committee of Armenia, and Abram Bakhchagulian, Secretary of Central
Electoral Commission, considered the opportunities of holding an e-voting in
Armenia as a means of enhancing the voters' trust towards the elections.
The next "E-Club" will be aired on "A1+" on April 5.
RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MP GOES TO LAW WITH "YERKIR" DAILY
On March 25 the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash
administrative districts of Yerevan started hearing the suit of Tigran
Arzakantsian, RA National Assembly MP, member of "Republican Party of
Armenia" faction, versus "'Yerkir' Editorial Office" LLC - founder and
publisher of "Yerkir" daily. The reason of the suit became the piece about
Tigran Arzakantsian, appeared in "Yerkir" on January 13, 2011 within the
column "131 Faces and the Masks" (the given cycle presents the Armenian MPs
in alphabetical order). Tigran Arzakantsian had sent a refutation text to
the newspaper, and since it was not published, he went to law. The plaintiff
demands to refute the information discrediting his honor and dignity, oblige
the daily to publish the court decision on the case, exact 3 million AMD
(about $ 8,200) from the defendant as a compensation for libel and
defamation, as well as compensate the court expenses of 568,000 AMD.
At the session of March 25 the party of the plaintiff specified the
contested words and expressions in the piece, assessed as libel or
defamation.
On March 26 "Yerkir", upon its own initiative, stored an editorial on the
front page, entitled "Refutation". The daily refuted the words and
expressions that insulted the MP. The editorial ended with a question: "Did
you believe?"
The next court session is appointed on April 11.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH DAY CELEBRATED IN GYUMRI FOR THE THIRD TIME
On March 25, the Freedom of Speech Day was celebrated in "October" cinema of
Gyumri. The event was organized by "Asparez" Journalists Club of Gyumri and
was marked in the second Armenian biggest town for already the third year.
On this occasion four media representatives received memorable gifts: Anush
Martirosian, correspondent of Radio "Free Europe"/Radio "Liberty" Armenian
Service - for covering human rights issues; Inga Zarafian, President of
"EcoLur" news NGO - for prompt coverage of environmental issues and
contribution to http://ecolur.org; Satenik Vantsian, correspondent of Radio
"Free Europe"/Radio "Liberty" Armenian Service - for covering issues on
protection of social interests; Larisa Paremuzian, correspondent of "Hetq"
online publication - for achievements in investigative journalism.
The Freedom of Speech Day was found in 2009 to mark the settlement of the
situation with "GALA" TV company of Gyumri: the payment of tax liability by
founder of "GALA", "CHAP" LLC, which almost put the TV company on the verge
of closing down. The funds for repaying the debt were donated by individuals
and organizations, both Armenian and international. The tax inspections at
"CHAP" LLC and the following lawsuits started, as soon as, on October 22,
2007, the "CHAP" owner Vahan Khachatrian announced about the attempts of
various power agencies to exert pressure on "GALA".
"ARAVOT" PRESENTED THE WINNERS OF COMPETITIONS FOR YEREVAN TV CHANNELS AND
STARTED A NEW ARTICLE SERIES
"Aravot" daily continues the article series which examine the applications
of the digital broadcast competition winners. The applications copies were
provided by National Commission on Television and Radio on the request of
Anna Israelian, the series author and "Aravot" observer.
The pieces of March 25 and 29, 2011 dealt with application of the winner of
competition No.11 (for Yerevan TV channels of international/current affairs
profile) "ArmNews" CJSC - founder of "ArmNews" TV channel. As it has been
reported, in this competition the opponent of "ArmNews" was "A1+" founder,
"Meltex" LLC. On December 16, 2010 the National Commission on Television and
Radio assessed the competition package of "ArmNews" with 44 points, while
"A1+" received 2 points. The NCTR decision on competition No.11 stated that
the financial sources, claimed by "Meltex", "cannot be considered
sufficient, given that the significant part of the supporting documents on
the financial assistance (...) is forged and unjustified". Namely, this fact
rendered impossible for "A1+" to implement a complete broadcast in the
digital network in Yerevan, assured the NCTR (see YPC Weekly Newsletter,
December 17-23, 2010).
The series author Anna Israelian explained that while analyzing the
"ArmNews" application she had not used the copy provided by NCTR, but the
facsimile of the whole document package, which was granted to "A1+" founder
by the NCTR in a judicial order (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
January 10-20, 2011). As the series author informed this was stipulated by
the fact that "currently the NCTR considers it inappropriate" to grant the
documents enclosed with the application.
By reminding that NCTR condemned "A1+" founder in having deficient and
obviously forged documents in the application, Anna Israelian stressed that
the application of "ArmNews" also contains "numerous shortcomings and
unconformities". Particularly, many contracts, concluded between "ArmNews"
and private persons, claimed as correspondents of the TV channel, are not
attested with a signature and a seal. The pieces on competition No.11 are
attended by the photos of some of the contracts. It should be noted that
even the first article of the series on competition No.1 winner, founder of
"Armenia" TV channel ("Armenia TV" CJSC), mentioned about the presence of
the same documents in applications of "ArmNews" and "Armenia". This,
according to "Aravot", demonstrates the well-known fact - the companies have
the same assets (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 11-17, 2011).
On March 30, 2011 "Aravot" presented the application of the winner of
competition No.15 (for TV channels of Yerevan of general profile) "Shark"
LLC, founder of "Hay TV" channel. Thus, the daily has analyzed all the
applications of the winners of competitions for Yerevan TV channels, except
the ones of No.12, 13 É 14, held for rebroadcasting companies.
Since March 31 "Aravot" started a new article series, "They Will Be
Broadcast in the Regions", dealing with the broadcast licensing competitions
for regional TV channels of general profile. The first piece of the series
regards the applications of competitions No.16 and 17 - "Tavush" LLC (Tavush
region) and "Fortuna" LLC (Lori region), respectively. The series author
Anna Israelian specifically noted that even though one of the co-owners of
"Tavush" LLC Samvel Sahakian holds the smaller part of the shares, he has
committed to implement a business program and to invest a sizeable sum in
the development of the TV channel. Anna Israelian stressed that the
documents, enclosed with the application, reveal that Samvel Sahakian is the
Executive Director of "Masis Tobacco" company - part of "Grand Holding"
group, owned by the Vardanian family. It is known that the Vardanian family
is the owner of "'AR' TV Company" LLC, which won at competition No.10 (for
Yerevan TV channels of youth/educational profile).
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS NAMED "THE BEST IN PROFESSION"
On March 30 in Moscow at the Central House of Journalists the award ceremony
of the International Journalistic Competition "The Best in Profession" was
held. Among the winners were two Armenian journalists: Gor Grigorian,
correspondent of Radio "Van", in "The Best Radio Reportage" nomination - for
the radio reportages "Football Reportage", "A Story about War", "Letters to
Pushkin"; director Armen Yeritsian in "The Best TV Plot" nomination - for
the documentary "The Last Tightrope Dancer of Armenia". Another
representative of Armenia was named laureate of the competition: Hayk
Badalian, correspondent of "Photolur" agency, in "The Best Photo Work"
nomination - for the photo "This Is How I Live". The competition was
organized by the International Confederation of Journalists Unions. One of
the jury members was Boris Navasardian, Yerevan Press Club President.
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]
Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]
Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: www.ypc.am
From: A. Papazian