The National Assembly Finalizes the Bill to Close Shoghakat TV

The bill to close Shoghakat TV has been fully approved. The ruling 'Civil Contract' faction endorsed it with 58 votes in favor.

'We will receive answers regarding what will happen after the bill's adoption in the budget proposal. The implementation will take place on January 1, depending on the decisions we make,' said one of the bill's authors, Taguhi Ghazaryan.

As it is known, the draft amends the law on 'Audiovisual Media' in Armenia and was authored by faction members Taguhi Ghazaryan and Sisak Gabrielyan. The members of the Civil Contract faction propose to reduce the number of public status television channels from three to two. The three public channels are 'First Channel', the spiritual-cultural 'Shoghakat', and the news channel 'Lurer'.

The draft suggests decreasing the number of public broadcasters stipulated in current law to two while simultaneously eliminating the requirement to have an educational-cultural programming component.

The justification of the bill reveals that it pertains to the abandonment of the spiritual-cultural 'Shoghakat' TV station, thereby removing it from the list of public broadcasters.

During the first reading, one of the bill's authors, Taguhi Ghazaryan, noted that the closure of Shoghakat TV is neither concerning nor a debate, as they have announced their intentions regarding this goal.

The Journalists' Union of Armenia urges the journalistic community and organizations concerned with press freedom to take effective measures to protect Shoghakat TV's right to remain among public broadcasters.