Armenia: Radio Liberty to Remain on Air

A new agreement signed between the US Broadcasting Board of Governors and an Armenian private radio company will allow Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to continue broadcasting in Armenia.

The new contract, signed July 31 with the privately owned AR Radio Intercontinental, will be in force from August 15, 2007 until September 14, 2008. AR Radio Intercontinental claims 80 percent coverage in Armenia. The station, ironically, belongs to the executive director of Armenian Public Radio, Armen Amirian. Its programming primarily consists of re-transmissions of public radio's Radio Yerevan programs.

Alexan Harutiunian, chairman of Armenia's Public Television and Radio Council, told EurasiaNet that the deal was envisaged as a next-best option to a contract with the US government-funded broadcaster that would have allowed RFE/RL to continue transmitting in Armenia via public airwaves. Radio Liberty's broadcasts on Public Radio are slotted to end August 9, due to the failure of contract talks in late July. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

AR Radio will reduce the time for public radio programs by two hours and five minutes per day to make room for re-broadcasts of Radio Liberty programs, Harutiunian said. The broadcast fee to be paid under the contract was not immediately available.

The broadcast reach for RFE/RL, known within Armenia as Radio Liberty, will be considerably reduced under the new arrangement – a detail that some critics argue was the government's goal. "The fewer people listen to Liberty's programs, the less they will be informed about what's going on in the republic," commented Yerevan Press Club Chairman Boris Navasardian. "This is one of the few media in Armenia that says what the authorities want to conceal."

RFE/RL Armenian Service's Prague Bureau Director Harry Tamrazian told EurasiaNet that the station cannot yet predict the size of the decrease in audience, though stated that a decrease is expected. Public Radio has three times as many transmitters in Armenia as AR Radio, he said. An RFE/RL press release put the number of AR Radio transmitters at 23, and stated that they "cover Yerevan and a number of outlying districts."

In the August 1 announcement to announce the deal, RFE/RL President and Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Gedmin indicated that the station's sights are still on Armenia's national public radio. "We remain deeply committed to nationwide coverage of Armenia," Gedmin said.

Opposition parliamentarian Larisa Alaverdian, a former ombudswoman of Armenia, sees the new contract as a sign that limitations on freedom of speech are simply becoming more sophisticated. "They have even taken care of the timing so that there is as little noise as possible: August is the time when the majority of the media are on vacation as are the human rights and civic activist organizations," said Alaverdian, a member of the Heritage Party faction.

Despite numerous attempts, pro-government parliamentarians and government representatives involved with the Radio Liberty issue could not be reached for comment. Despite the signing of a new broadcast contract for Radio Liberty, some government critics believe the station's difficulties are not over yet. They suggest that fresh legislation could be introduced to block Radio Liberty's broadcasts when parliament reconvenes in September. Said Shavarsh Kocharian, head of the opposition National Democratic Party and a former member of parliament: "New adventures are still ahead."