Are the Real Owners of Media Outlets Listed in the State Register?

The data from the State Register of Legal Entities will now be accessible to media organizations without any additional charge. This regulation was established by the legislative amendment adopted by the Government of Armenia today.

“The package of projects provides a benefit for legal entities and individual entrepreneurs engaged in journalistic activities. When obtaining information from the register of the state agency for legal entities,” said Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan.

He reminded that previously media outlets were required to pay a fee to access this information. Furthermore, the amount of information provided to the media is not legally limited. Earlier, it could not exceed 10 pages within a month.

Instead, the media will now be required to provide the full name of the legal entity conducting journalistic activities, the state registration number of the legal entity, its location, the reporter's name and surname, as well as the registration and address of the journalistic activity and the state registration number.

Badasyan noted that this last requirement has not been unequivocally accepted among journalists. “There was concern within some media outlets that there were elements of oversight over the activities of media organizations,” the minister said.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also reminded that the proposal to liberalize the database of the state register was presented by journalists about a year ago. “When we resolved this, they started making noise, right? If they don’t want it, we can choose not to accept it; this change is being made at their request.”

Pashinyan also asked whether the state register lists who the real owners of media outlets are, to which Badasyan responded negatively. In response to the minister, the prime minister said, “That’s not good, that’s not good; now they will say we want to control the media because we want to find out who the real owners are.”

The government approved the proposed package of legislative changes, and it will soon be submitted to the National Assembly for approval.