YEREVAN, JULY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly got down to the discussion of the package of bills of the RA government by the first reading at the June 28 sitting of the special session. According to the bill, which envisages to make amendments in the valid law on "Television and Radio", the activities of other broadcasting organizations are unequivocally prohibited on the frequencies used by the Public Radio-Telvision company. According to the current law in force, such an activity is possible only in case the Cfouncil of the Public Radio-Television company agrees to this. The government connects this change with the fact that the activities of the Public Radio and Television company, which was created by the state, has a special status and solves problems concerning, exclusively, public interests, can not go with the activities of other broadcasting organizations, which are directed at solving private problems. With another bill the government suggests making addenda in the RA Law on "State Duty". According to this bill, a state duty of 70 thousand drams (about 200 U.S. dollars) is defined for each broadcast of the programs of national editorial staff and service of foreign mass media by a RA private television company, irrespective of the duration of the broadcast. According to independent analysts and some MPs, the above mentioned package of bills is directed against the broadcast of the programs of the Armenian service of the Azatution (Liberty) radio station by the Public Radio company. This is connected with the fact that about 20 MPs were registered in order to make speeches and ask questions to Gevorg Danielian, the RA Minister of Justice and the main speaker. The Minister denied the fact that the bill is directed against Azatutiun (Liberty) radio station. According to him, there are two more similar companies, one of which is the MIR television company. Raffi Hovannisian, the head of the Zharangutiun (Heritage) faction, mentioned in his speech that MPs should not "put stigma on themselves by vertical orders" as they are to take responsibility for that decision. He believes that there are still a number of other foreign mass media broadcasting in the territory of Armenia: the ORT and RTR Russian television companies, in particular, as well as Euronews and CNN.

---