Mass media in Armenia

Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues.

[3] Article 47 of the Constitution of Armenia prohibits incitement to national, racial and religious hatred, propaganda of violence.

Criminal liability for defamation was eliminated in 2010, but the civil code established high monetary penalties, up to 2,000 times the minimum salary.

[1] A draft amendment that would make online media liable for defamatory comments was put forward in 2014; it was postponed sine die after domestic and international criticisms.

The latter guarantees right to freedom of selection, production and broadcast of TV and radio programme and forbids censorship (Article 4).

[4] The 2010 new Law on Television and Radio was negatively assessed by the OSCE RFoM, as failing to promote media pluralism in the digital age, despite amendments.

[4] Broadcast media require licenses from the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR), which is composed of 8 members (4 appointed by the President, 4 by the Parliament) for a 6-years mandate.

[4] TV is the main medium in Armenia, and most of its channels are controlled or friendly with the government, as broadcast media require a license.

There are eight private agencies: Shant, Noyan Tapan, Arminfo, Arka, Mediamax, PanArmenian, News-Armenia and Photolur.

Other noteworthy publications are the daily Jamanak (Times), which is published in Istanbul and Chorrord ishghanutyun (Forth authority), both considered opposition party newspapers.

[9] During the Yerevan's Freedom Square' protests following the Armenian presidential election, 2008, the government introduced a 20-days "state of emergency".

[12] In the year 2008 TRBNA upgraded the main circuit to digital distribution system based on DVB-IP and MPEG2 standards.

[14] The Committee to Protect Journalists suggested that these amendments are primarily aimed at keeping the independent TV station A1+ off the air.

[14] Both A1+ and GALA TV failed to win new licenses in supposedly competitive tenders administered by the National Commission on Television and Radio in late 2010.

[8] The Armenian Association of Film Critics and Cinema Journalists (AAFCCJ) gathers the workers in the mass media sector.

[19] Armenia is connected to the Trans-Asia-Europe fiber-optic cable system via Georgia, which runs along the railroad from Poti to Tbilisi to the Armenian border near Marneuli.

This was caused by very high prices of Internet access, and only very few people could use other types of connections until Beeline, Vivacell MTS and Orange started selling portable USB-modems.

[8] Armenia's constitution recognises the right to form and join trade unions, with some restrictions for members of the armed forces or police.

[4] Broadcast media require licenses from the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR), which is composed of 8 members (4 appointed by the President, 4 by the Parliament) for a 6-years mandate.

Journalists covering a demonstration against President Robert Kocharyan were attacked when police intervened to detain the protestors in 2005.

[14] According to the CPJ report, new amendments to Armenian broadcasting law in 2010 positioned President Sarkisian "to maintain control over the country's docile television and radio stations, most of which were owned by pro-government politicians and businessmen.

"Prosecutors regularly colluded in this practice by failing to investigate police officers, even filing charges on occasion against journalists who protested abuses, CPJ research showed.

Furthermore, the government blocked access to the YouTube website which contained videos from the 1 March protest and late-night clashes with police that showed special forces firing automatic weapons directly into the crowd.

[1] Civil defamation is still used by politicians and businessmen to put pressure on the media since high fines are foreseen – deemed disproportionate by the OSCE RFoM.

[43] The NGO Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE) had counted 17 civil defamation lawsuits against media workers in 2014.

A Yerevan court ordered the seizure of the newspaper's properties as an interim measure pending the final decision.

The OSCE RFoM denounced the judgement, and recalled that "compensation... should be proportional to actual damages and should not lead to the closure of a news outlet".

In times of political unrest, the government has not hesitated to put in place restrictions on the Internet as a means to curtail public protest and discontent.

[50] The law limits the broadcast of programmes produced in foreign countries: ... broadcasts of domestically produced programmes by television-radio companies on one television (radio) channel may not be less than 55 per cent of the overall monthly airtime ...According to a report by the local chapter of Transparency International media in Armenia are diverse, but television stations are controlled by the state or wealthy business.

[51] According to IREX it "represents what could be considered a model public media outlet, allowing for a wide spectrum of views and opinions and providing balanced, impartial, and neutral coverage", but its audience is limited.