By Elen Muradyan
Armenian media organizations have issued a joint statement criticizing the head of the country’s Television and Radio Commission (TRC) following his controversial remarks about media funding. TRC Chairman Tigran Hakobyan sparked outrage in the journalistic community after making sarcastic comments about critics of a government-established media funding foundation during a May 16 interview on Public Television.
The Armenian government decided on April 17 to establish the “Public Benefit Media Environment” foundation to support television companies in creating public interest programming. Several civil society organizations criticized this move, stating the government adopted the program without consulting or involving journalist organizations.
Media specialists have also questioned why the government is allocating funds for public interest programming when public resources already finance Public Television, Public Radio, and other entities for this purpose.
“These NGOs were upset that the government did this without consulting them. You cannot devalue any good work just because you didn’t participate in it,” Hakobyan said during the interview.
Several journalist organizations including Protect Freedom of Speech, Yerevan Press Club, Media Initiatives Center, and Goris Press Club released a joint statement calling Hakobyan’s comments “distorting reality and unfounded.”
“Tigran Hakobyan’s claim that our criticism was due to not participating in the foundation’s creation process clearly distorts the content of our statement and the core issue,” the statement read. The organizations emphasized their position that all media organizations, regardless of status, should be able to benefit from the foundation if they are prepared to create content that meets the public interest.
The organizations also condemned Hakobyan’s targeting of the Goris Press Club, his attempt to devalue its activities, and his contemptuous attitude toward it.
During the interview, Hakobyan claimed the Goris Press Club receives substantial funding of around 380 million drams ($970K) but does not publish information about its activities. He expressed surprise that the organization raises issues while, according to his assessment, not disclosing how it spends the funds it receives.
“Have you heard of such a press club? What does it do? We searched and found that they must present their financial statement on their website annually, but there was no financial statement on the website. We received information from the tax service that their annual budget is about 380 million drams. The foundation created for dozens of television companies was only 250 million drams ($650K),” said the TRC chairman.
In defense of the Goris Press Club, media organizations stated that this regional entity is recognized in the public sector for its journalistic, social, humanitarian, and local self-government development activities.
“That is why it received a large grant from an international donor organization, which testifies not only to its capabilities and skills but also to the trust it has gained over the years,” the statement noted.
Media organizations also sharply responded to Hakobyan’s observation that they are not fighting against misinformation or violations of professional ethics.
“It is difficult to say whether this is a result of ignorance or an attempt to deliberately distort reality. In any case, these issues have always been at the center of our attention. We have addressed them in numerous statements, analyses, and documents,” the statement said.
It concluded with the media organizations calling on Hakobyan to “thoroughly study the work of each NGO before making judgments about its activities; otherwise, public assessments become vulnerable.”
The Television and Radio Commission in Armenia is responsible for licensing broadcast media, content oversight, and implementing regulatory functions in the media sector.
The post Armenian media organizations criticize broadcasting regulator head appeared first on CIVILNET.