The court recognized the Public Television Company as the sole owner of the film “Our Road to Independence,” directed by Tigran Paskevichyan, and prohibited the director from screening it at closed or open meetings, gatherings, or any other events.<\/p>\n
“The pathetic public television company, which has kept my film ‘Our Road to Independence’ shelved and off the air for five and a half years, has now received a court ruling that prohibits any form of its screening, including in auditoriums,\u201d Paskevichyan wrote<\/a> on his Facebook page, commenting on the court\u2019s decision. He added that, as before, he will continue to screen his film in various formats.<\/span><\/p>\n According to Tigran Paskevichyan, the problem is the film’s content: it recounts the years of the Karabakh movement and the events that followed, up to the referendum of September 21, 1991.<\/span><\/p>\n “They don’t want people to be reminded that this country was built step by step. Otherwise, people will understand that they came and destroyed what had been built over the years,” he said<\/a> in an interview with Factor TV.<\/span><\/p>\n Hovhannes Movsisyan, the executive director of the Public Television Company, later clarified that the screening of the film was not banned. “No film was banned. This is not an issue of censorship; it concerns the failure to fulfill contractual obligations. A film was commissioned with clear deadlines and a fixed broadcast date. However, the author did not deliver the film within the appointed time frame outlined in the contract. After some time, the author began screening the film without the copyright holder’s permission, Public Television. The situation escalated when, during one of these screenings, the author publicly accused Public Television, prompting a legal response. In response, Public Television decided to file a lawsuit to protect its rights. It’s also worth noting that during the legal proceedings, the author attempted to negotiate a settlement,” Movsisyan explained.<\/p>\n After reviewing the case materials, we learned from Datalex that the film was screened on May 2, 2025, at the Armenian National Congress party’s office. Following this, an article was published on the Aravot news website on May 3, titled “The Film About Independence That Was Never Broadcast on Public TV.” According to the case materials, on May 15, 2025, Public Television sent a letter to Paskevichyan requesting clarification as to why the film had been screened without his permission. “In response, Tigran Paskevichyan did not deny the fact of the film’s screening; moreover, his written reply states that it had been shown not only on May 2 of this year, but also on various occasions across different platforms. The respondent used the film multiple times without the claimant’s permission, which constitutes a significant violation of the latter’s exclusive and inalienable property rights,” the case materials state.<\/p>\n The case documents reveal that Tigran Paskevichyan, the creator of the film “Our Road to Independence,” acknowledged signing an agreement granting all rights to the film to the Public Television of Armenia. He later screened the film for various audiences because, at the time of signing, he believed that Public Television would broadcast it and upload it to its YouTube channel. He intended to show the film from that channel afterward.<\/p>\n Paskevichyan stated, \u201cFor example, if I were invited to a meeting, I wouldn\u2019t bring the video file with me. Instead, I would play it directly from Public Television\u2019s YouTube channel in the meeting room. In that case, I believe no questions would arise about why I was using a film that belongs to Public Television during the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n When he informed Armen Sargsyan, the acting executive director of Public Television at the time, that the contract did not grant him any rights, Sargsyan replied, \u201cIf the film is on YouTube, feel free to use it however you wish, as long as you give proper credit to the copyright holder,\u201d according to the case materials.<\/p>\n Hovhannes Movsisyan mentioned that they are considering options to make the film available to everyone so they can assess it personally.<\/p>\n Tigran Paskevichyan responded to Hovhannes Movsisyan’s post, stating<\/a>, “The Public TV lies not only on air.” He clarified that his contract was signed on July 24, 2020, for a three-month term, with the film’s completion date set for October 24, 2020, not August 23. Paskevichyan then raised the question: “If I had violated the contract terms, why were no penalties applied, and why was the contract extended for an additional 60 days? Could such an extension have been made without the consent of the Public broadcaster?”<\/p>\n The director noted that on March 3, 2023, he sent a letter proposing a reasonable resolution regarding the film’s use. However, he did not receive a response. Consequently, he decided to reserve the right to organize a series of screenings in theaters.<\/p>\n In an interview with Media.am Armen Martirosyan, director of Antares Media Holding, said that years ago, they had initiated filming the film with the Attic NGO. The contract was supposed to be signed first between Tigran Paskevichyan and the NGO, then between the NGO and the TV company, but as a result of certain discussions, it was signed directly between the director and Public TV. Later, as a participant in the discussions and an advocate for copyright protection, Armen Martirosyan suggested that Tigran Paskevichyan negotiate with Public Television to acquire the film’s copyrights.<\/p>\n “I spoke with Hovhannes Movsisyan, and we had two conversations. I asked him what we could do to obtain the rights to the film, considering that the author is Paskevichyan. Movsisyan mentioned that there is a pending court case and suggested that we wait for it to conclude before determining the next steps. I did not speak to him again after the court session ended, but he was always open to discussions,” he said.<\/p>\n Armen Martirosyan acknowledged issues with the film’s deadlines. However, he also recalled that, upon completion of the film, there were concerns about the portrayal of Vazgen Manukyan, who served as Armenia’s Prime Minister from 1990 to 1991. Some critics argued that his portrayal in the film was excessive. Martirosyan explained that Tigran Paskevichyan defended the depiction, stating that Manukyan was indeed very active during those years, and the footage reflected that reality. Martirosyan did not recall any other specific reasons why the film might not have been shown.<\/p>\n Armen Martirosyan believes that if the film had been shown in 2018-2019, the war might have been avoided because it is powerful.<\/p>\n Vasak Darbinyan, the chairman of the Public Broadcaster Council, told media.am that there was no directive to prevent the film from being shown; rather, it was not submitted by the appropriate deadlines. “I have no desire to comment on the controversy. There is a court ruling, and the Public Broadcaster has filed a lawsuit. We are not involved in this process, and we cannot bypass the court ruling or compel the Public Broadcaster to show the film,” Darbinyan stated.<\/p>\n Media.am has submitted a written request to the Public Television Company. We will share additional information as soon as we receive their response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The court recognized the Public Television Company as the sole owner of the film “Our Road to Independence,” directed by Tigran Paskevichyan, and prohibited the director from screening it at closed or open meetings, gatherings, or any other events. “The pathetic public television company, which has kept my film ‘Our Road to Independence’ shelved and Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":45493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-post","category-newsroom","author_posts-tigranuhi-martirosyan-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45668,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45667\/revisions\/45668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}