Armenia's Radio Liberty Faces Uncertain Future

Dozens of demonstrators took to the streets in Yerevan on July 2 to protest draft legislation that they say could stifle free speech ahead of Armenia's 2008 presidential election. The legislation, if passed, would enable officials to terminate Armenian broadcasts of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, government critics contend. Government supporters reject the outcry as misdirected.

On June 29, parliament voted by 79 to 16 in the first reading to pass amendments that would ban the foreign media outlets from using Armenian public radio and television airwaves. They would also impose a 70,000 dram (about $205) fee for each rebroadcast via private radio and television stations. There was one abstention from the vote. A second and final reading of the amendments is scheduled for July 3.

Some representatives of local media outlets maintain that certain senior government leaders have long distrusted Radio Liberty, and see the legislation as a means of curtailing the station's operations in Armenia. During his traditional 2007 New Year reception for journalists, President Robert Kocharian criticized the station for allegedly spreading "unbalanced and negative information." Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian has expressed similar misgivings.

Yet senior members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia maintain that the amendments have nothing to do with RFE/RL and are not dictated from "above."

"The government has no goal of closing Radio Liberty," said Republican Party parliamentarian Armen Ashotian, using the popular name for RFE/RL's Armenian Service. "If it had, it would have done so via the Board of the Public Radio and Television Company, without so much transparency."

While refraining from commenting on the amendments' implications, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, voiced strong support for the station. At a June 29 press conference, Oskanian told reporters that "[i]t will hurt me if [Radio] Liberty stops going on air," according to a report posted on the Panorama.am information portal. "Liberty makes its contribution to democracy."

Parliamentary Speaker Tigran Tirosian has argued that the amendments have as much to do with Radio Liberty as they do with this year's bad apricot harvest.

RFE/RL, however, is the only foreign broadcaster that uses Armenia's public radio frequencies for domestic broadcasts. The Prague-based radio station's Armenian service relies on the frequencies to broadcast its news programs nationwide several times a day. If the amendments pass, the radio station could have to pay approximately $250,000 to $300,000 per year to maintain the same broadcast schedule. Local observers worry that the changes, if voted into law, may result in a serious curtailment of the Armenian Service's broadcasts and even the Armenia-based station's closure.

"These new laws clearly restrict access to a crucial independent news source for many Armenians, and deal a serious blow to RFE/RL, and to freedom of the media in general," RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin said in a June 30 statement.

Armenian Public Television and Radio Company (PTRC) Board Chairman Alexan Harutiunian, told public television's 360 Degrees program on July 1 that the conflict boils down to financial issues. Radio Liberty has failed to pay rebroadcast fees "since February," he claimed.

"If the goal was to shut down Radio Liberty, there was no need at all for a law to do that," Harutiunian said. The alleged failure to pay retransmission fees gave sufficient cause, the PTRC chairman continued. The board refrained from such action "for different reasons," he added, and "to avoid speculation."

Representatives of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Yerevan office declined to comment.

Government critics see the legislation as connected to the upcoming presidential election. A similar move was used against popular private television station A1 Plus, which was shut down before the last presidential elections in 2003, commented Suren Sureniants, a member of the political council of the opposition Republic Party.

"[I]f the very first legislative initiative of the newly elected National Assembly is aimed at the restriction of democracy, then the idea of parliamentarianism is being discredited itself," said Sureniants, who does not hold a seat in parliament. "For me it's not only a political, but also a moral issue."

"This is not to protect Radio Liberty, but against the violence that reigns among us," commented Amalia Kostanian, board chairwoman for the Center for Regional Development/Transparency International Armenia, who took part in the July 2 demonstration. "Yesterday it was A1 Plus, today Radio Liberty, tomorrow it will be non-governmental organizations, newspapers."

Parliamentary Speaker Torosian dismissed criticism as "no more than a provocation spread by deputies and journalists."

On June 28, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, condemned the amendments as "incompatible with OSCE commitments to safeguard pluralism and the free flow of information in the media." The New York-based organization Human Rights Watch voiced similar worries, saying that the amendments' passage would undermine Armenia's "international commitments to freedom of expression and the media."

"As Armenia prepares for presidential elections in 2008, the world will certainly be watching to see if the government respects freedom of the media and other freedoms necessary for a free and fair vote," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. International observers said Armenia's May 12 parliamentary elections as the first vote in the country's post-Soviet history that largely met international standards. [For background see the EurasiaNet special feature, Armenia: Vote 2007].