YEREVAN, APRIL 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The reason that at every step you can see signs, posters and advertisement boards either in a foreign language (without Armenian translation) or in Armenian letters but with the use of foreign words is that by the law, permission to place external advertisement is given by local government bodies, without a requirement to receive an agreement of the RA State Language Inspection, the inspection head Lavrenty Mirzoyan said at the April 17 press conference. According to him, the RA Law on Checks also hinders regulation of the use of Armenian in external advertising. The law envisages a period of three days for removal of a non-Armenian sign after the Inspection's recommendation, and the Inspection has no right to prepare a report and send it to court for administrative proceedings. During this period, the sign is removed and then placed again. A check has to be made in the same facility in order to draw up a report, while the Law on Checks allows to do so once a year. The inspection head added that the management of economic entities often prefers not to remove foreign signs worth 5 thousand dollars, paying instead a fine of 50 thousand drams (about 161 dollars).

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