Armenia

A1 Plus Anniversary Protest Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2004

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the closure of the independent TV station A1 Plus. On 2 April the station was deprived of its frequency in a deeply flawed tender, the loss of A1 Plus marked the start of the presidential election campaign the following year. Armenia has been suffering ever since. Last December, the BBC reported on the case before the European Court of Human Rights.

The European Court of Human Rights is studying an appeal by an Armenian TV station against a government decision to close it down.

The court’s judgement could have far-reaching implications for freedom of expression and human rights in Armenia and across the southern Caucasus.

In April 2002, the Armenian government took A1+ off the air.

The TV station, which was the most popular independent news channel at the time, has since reapplied ten times for a licence to broadcast. Each time it has been refused.

Usually, some kind of demonstration by journalists in support of A1 Plus takes place in Yerevan, but I’m told that this year there is none. Nontheless, others haven’t forgotten the station, and not least because while A1 Plus does produce a web site and newspaper now, what is believed to be a concerted campaign by the authorities to disrupt their work continues. The Institute of War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) has more.

Four years ago, Armenia’s A1+ independent TV station was forced off the air in what its journalists maintain was a government-inspired vendetta.

Now, A1+ says the authorities are behind moves to force the TV station out of its offices.

For 15 years, A1+ has rented space on Grigor Lusavorich Street in downtown Yerevan.

But the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, which owns the building, is suddenly demanding that A1+ leave.

“The academy is just a tool. I am deeply convinced that had it not received ‘instructions’, [the academy] would not have resorted to such a step,” human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanian told IWPR.

“All this is aimed at creating new obstacles for A1+, in order to complete the process started four years ago of closing the TV station down.”

[…]

“Providing suitable new premises for A1+ would be a positive step which would demonstrate a commitment to enhance media freedom and pluralism in Armenia,” said Bojana Urumova, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to Armenia.

“Any move from one place to another creates additional problems for any organisation. Although A1+ is not broadcasting now, it continues to be an active player in the information field that produces serious products,” said Navasardian.

The station continues to produce TV shows, and publishes a weekly edition and daily news through the internet.

Last week the issue of A1 Plus was also raised at a round table on “Armenia’s Information Crisis” organized by Raffi Hovannisian’s National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI). No wonder it’s believed that the authorities are out to break Hovannisian in time for the 2007 parliamentary and 2008 presidential elections. More information is available on the NCI web site.

NCI coordinator Hovsep Khurshudian welcomed the audience with opening remarks: “Today, when some politicians of the opposition and independent analysts are hopeful that a real opportunity has emerged for the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held freely and in compliance with the standards of democracy, even without the restoration of the right of the A1+ and Noyan Tapan independent television companies to broadcast, reminds me of the year 2002. Following the closing down of these stations, a number of people were then confident that the rule of law would be established in the country as the result of the upcoming presidential elections and that the violated rights would be restored. We recall all to well what occurred then, and it appears that every condition now exists for a repetition of the whole scenario.”

In his intervention on “The Effects of Shutting Down A1+ and Noyan Tapan on the Right of Armenia’s Citizens to Receive Information and the Means for Overcoming These Effects,” president of the A1+ Television Company Mesrop Movsisian briefly presented the history of this matter. In his words, the 19 media organizations which after the notorious contest in 2002 signed a joint declaration deeming the contest as legitimate, in fact signed the verdict not only against their own freedom of speech but on that of the entire country. Movsisian finds that the shutting down of A1+ and Noyan Tapan is a concern not for television stations alone but for the entire population of Armenia. He stated that his television company’s petition submitted to the European Court of Human Rights was now in the process of examination. According to Movsisian, liberal competition among electronic media has come to an end in Armenia and as a result there is a setback not only in terms of unimpeded dissemination of information but also in the appraisal of journalistic professionalism. And all of this in its turn has brought forth a severe limitation on Armenian citizens’ right to receive information.

A1 Plus also covered the conference as well as attending it in the form of its Director Mesrop Movsesian, who I interviewed a day after the station was closed in April 2002. Thankfully, almost everyone now understands what a loss A1 Plus was and that without it, the chances for democratization in Armenia are fairly slim. No surprise that most of us are awaiting the ruling of the European Court with baited breath. A1 Plus has more on that too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 1st, 2006 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Human Rights, Cinema, Freedom of Speech, Censorship, Europe, Caucasus, Media, Democracy, Elections, Armenia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.