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24.05.2022
Artur Hovhannisyan: According to the proposed regulation of the Law on Mass Media, the media outlet is not deprived of its right to operate in the state body
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According to the amendments made to the Law on Mass Media, the accreditation of a journalist can also be terminated by the state body based on the violations in the work zone. The deputies of the Civil Contract Faction Artur Hovhannisyan and Lilit Minasyan suggest to make new addenda to the law. According to Artur Hovhannisyan, another provision of the law is disputable. It is possible to terminate the accreditation only with an application of a person who carries out media activities. Although a person who carries out media activities is informed about the violations in the work zone, however, it is not followed by any action of a person who carries out media activities. As a result, it is not possible to restore the normal work of the work zone, as well as in many cases such a situation hinders the implementation of normal activities of other journalists. Artur Hovhannisyan underlined that technical amendments were made. Pursuant to the proposed regulation, the accreditation of a journalist can be terminated with an application of a person, carrying out media activities, who presented him/her for accreditation or the state budget that accredited him/her. The accreditation by the state body accredited a journalist on its own initiative can be terminated only if the journalist violates those rules again within one year after the written warning for violation of the working rules.

Artur Hovhannisyan assured that the media outlet is not deprived of its right to operate in the state body, and no rights are violated. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure a normal work environment in the state structure, to follow the rules of coexistence, to carry out normal activities of journalists.

According to the member of the NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport Hasmik Hakobyan, this amendment is intended to fill the legislative gap, as the current law enables the state body to terminate the accreditation of a journalist, however the relevant toolkit is absent.

“The executive body proposed to feature the issue of envisaging the grounds for terminating the accreditation by the state body that accredited a journalist on its own initiative by law, which was adopted by the authors,” the RA Deputy Minister Grigor Minasyan said about this.