For expert advice on media ethics, its application, or breach of the Code, the Commission on TV and Radio (CTR) may request an expert opinion from the media watchdog to submit an expert opinion or decision.

On February 14, the commission and the Media Ethics Monitoring Body signed a memorandum of cooperation.

Boris Navasardyan, president of the Yerevan Press Club, says this is a very important way to ensure self-regulation, which was one of the requirements of the TV licensing competition.

“The implementation of this requirement of the law has caused problems and uncertainties. In this sense, the memorandum can have a wider application and will become an opportunity for uniform media regulation for the media outlets that have joined in self-regulation,” said the YPC President.

Navasardyan says that this partnership will have a positive impact on the content created by broadcasters, although it would have been better if the memorandum had been signed before the TV licensing competition.

The code of ethics was a mandatory condition for appearing in the public multiplex. Although the ethical norms of different media service companies do not differ much, it was important for each broadcaster to create, develop and publish its own.

“It would be an interesting precedent to have a self-regulatory body during the competition in order to have more substantiated results for the CTR in relation to the code of conduct requirements,” he said.

In his speech during the signing of the memorandum, the president of the CTR, Tigran Hakobyan, noted that in Armenia, both state bodies, the media, and the public consider that the state body has the tools to punish the media however, the Law on Audiovisual Media provides a completely different way to establish in society that the issue of observing the rules of ethics is everyone’s business.

The memorandum stipulates that the Supervisory Body may also include examples from international best practices in its expert opinion or decision.

The parties will also regularly discuss current issues of ethics in the field of audiovisual media and will exchange documents promoting the development of the field. And they will work on the basis of conscientiousness and moral obligation.

Although the memorandum has just been signed, at the moment the Supervisory Body is studying 6 applications submitted by the Commission.

Gayane Asryan