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Yerevan Press Club Weekly Newsletter - 03/31/2011

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  • Yerevan Press Club Weekly Newsletter - 03/31/2011

    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]

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    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
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