YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Ministry of Transport and Communication which is publicly against monopolies, in reality has created and supports development of an artificial monopoly in such an important sphere as the sphere of telecommunication is what, in its turn, obstacles the legal activity of the electronic media. Aram Mkrtchian, the Executive Director of the "Radio Hay" radio station stated about this at the November 11 press-conference. According to him, the Ministry founded the "Republican Center of Telecommunication" (RCT) CJSC in 1998 to which, by a decree of the RA Government, unlimited commissions were given in the field of control and settlement of the telecommunication sphere starting with levy of all payments connected with television and radio broadcast to implementation of control of enterprises working in that sphere on behalf of the state. But, according to A.Mkrtchian, after adopting the law "On Television and Radio" in 2000, the Ministry of Transport and Communication was obliged to review commissions on mass media given to the RCT. But according to him, no review of commissions took place and from 2000 up today, the RCT has continued to levy payments from all television and radio companies got frequencies for those services which haven't been fixed by the legislation and even haven't been served in reality. "The RCT CJSC, using the commission on giving permission of using the transmitter on behalf of the state, blackmails Armenian broadcasting companies," A.Mkrtchian mentioned. A.Mkrtchian also stated that the RCT got a baseless profit of about 50 mln drams (about 111 thousand US dollars) from payments of all television and radio companies got a licence till now. According to him, a criminal action was brought based on the complaint presented to the RA General Prosecutor's Office by the "Radio Hay" radio station late in October. The case is in process.

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