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ARMENIAN BILL WORRIES RFE/RL
Radio World, VA
July 7 2007
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty officials are worried about draft
legislation that would ban rebroadcast of foreign radio programs on
public airwaves in Armenia.
President Jeffrey Gedmin recently criticized legislation in that
country's parliament that would ban the rebroadcast of RFE/RL Armenian
Service programming.
He said the proposal is clearly targeted at RFE/RL's Armenian language
broadcasts. "It would set a dangerous precedent for public media in
all of the countries of the former Soviet Union, where people have
listened for decades to RFE and RL broadcasts in order to get news
otherwise unavailable from local, state-run media."
The bill also would impose a tax of more than $200 per program per
day for every time a private station rebroadcast a foreign-produced
program, officials complained. "This tax represents a 70-fold increase
over the fees broadcasters must pay to retransmit a locally-produced
program."
The proposal is backed by Armenia's ruling coalition, RFE/RL said.
Armenia is in southwestern Asia, east of Turkey.
Radio World, VA
July 7 2007
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty officials are worried about draft
legislation that would ban rebroadcast of foreign radio programs on
public airwaves in Armenia.
President Jeffrey Gedmin recently criticized legislation in that
country's parliament that would ban the rebroadcast of RFE/RL Armenian
Service programming.
He said the proposal is clearly targeted at RFE/RL's Armenian language
broadcasts. "It would set a dangerous precedent for public media in
all of the countries of the former Soviet Union, where people have
listened for decades to RFE and RL broadcasts in order to get news
otherwise unavailable from local, state-run media."
The bill also would impose a tax of more than $200 per program per
day for every time a private station rebroadcast a foreign-produced
program, officials complained. "This tax represents a 70-fold increase
over the fees broadcasters must pay to retransmit a locally-produced
program."
The proposal is backed by Armenia's ruling coalition, RFE/RL said.
Armenia is in southwestern Asia, east of Turkey.