“Today in Armenia there are television companies of bribe-takers, and the names of the real owners of Armenian media outlets must be known to the public,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared at a government meeting, recalling the information war waged against the authorities he leads.
According to the Prime Minister, of course, first of all the government itself must operate transparently, and by the assessment of international organisations, over the past year and a half the Armenian government has taken “huge steps” in terms of increasing transparency, which has earned the clear appreciation of the international community: — “The international community today already assesses this very clearly. Therefore we must also take the next step: in our country, public organisations and media outlets must also be transparent, starting with the transparency of real owners. For example, today in the Republic of Armenia there are television companies that are the property of specific individuals. I would even say that the level of democracy in the Republic of Armenia is so high that today in the Republic of Armenia there are television companies of bribe-takers. In place of the logo of at least 2 TV channels one could write ‘Corruption’ or ‘Corruption Group’”:
Pashinyan did not specify which television companies he meant.
“To be honest, our people blame us a lot for this, but I am not particularly dissatisfied with this situation, because I think that, first, the activity of such a television company not only reveals to us the circle of the main bribe-takers, but also their tentacles. Later, I think, it makes our work considerably easier in terms of the fight against corruption,” the Prime Minister continued. — “And secondly, the information war waged against our government and the people, first of all against the government, helps us to constantly raise the quality of our work higher and higher. But on the other hand, I propose to go down the path of writing the real logos on the television companies”:
This topic had arisen after the government decision to allocate 26 million drams to the company “3m3a”, which has offices in London and Dubai, to audit the organisation “Atmosphere Armenia”, which conducts television measurements in Armenia, that is, to determine to what extent the study of the Armenian digital television audience and television measurements conducted by “Atmosphere Armenia” correspond to international standards.
The topic was also addressed within the National Assembly, where hearings were underway regarding legislative changes in the field of audiovisual media services.
Hovhannes Movsisyan, director of the “Public Relations and Information Centre” State Non-Commercial Organisation (SNCO) of the Prime Minister’s Office, presented the problem as follows: — “For years the advertising market has been centralised, and the advertising budget has been centralised in one company. The main portion of the money has been centralised in one company, from where it has been distributed to the television companies. So that you can imagine the model: when there are interconnected companies, one provides the ratings, the other provides the advertising money, and here there is also a third piece, which is the broadcasting company, and there are very serious suspicions that these companies are interconnected with each other”.
