YEREVAN, JUNE 21, NOYAN TAPAN. In July, OSCE plans to finish working at the report on the state of media in Armenia, which will be submitted to OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media Miklos Haraszti informed about it at the June 21 press conference. Presenting his preliminary estimations connected with the situation in the sphere of freedom of speech in Armenia, M.Haraszti emphasized that real pluralism exists only in printed media, while in this respect electronic media are inferior to printed media. However, according to him, some newspapers are, in essence, "weak" due to lack of funds and they cannot exert a proper influence on the formation of the public opinion. M.Haraszti drew attention to the circumstance that the majority of members of the National Commission of Radio and Television is appointed by the President and declared that one of the recommendations of OSCE is to change this provision in RA law "On Radio and Television." As he estimated, there is an interdependence between the staff of this commission and the situation in electronic media, which lack pluralism. He pointed to the necessity to work out such a system of licensing in giving frequences to electronic media that would exclude the possibility of appropriating this right by someone. "The state has privatized the right of giving licences to TV channels," M.Haraszti declared. According to him, OSCE is going to recommend Armenia to perfect the order of licensing of TV and radio frequences by new amendments to the law. In particular, the process of licensing should be more transparent. Besides, certain limitations should be introduced here. In particular, according to M.Haraszti, there are persons in Armenia who own more than one channel. As for persecutions and physical violence towards journalists, M.Haraszti mentioned that no cases of mass violations and persecutions have been registered in Armenia since 2004. According to him, "persecutions towards journalists do not have an organized character in Armenia."

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