On September 12 the President of Armenia Serge Sargsian signed the RA Law “On Introducing an Addition to the RA Law ‘On Television and Radio’”, according to which the conductance of broadcast licensing competitions is suspended till July 20, 2010. As it has been reported, the draft was approved by the RA Government on August 28, was publicized only on September 8, the day the autumn session of the RA National Assembly opened, and was adopted through a quickened procedure on September 10. The day before, on September 9, five journalistic associations of the country called on the deputies to vote against the draft. The signatories qualified the actions of the Government as another proof that “its initiatives in media domain are aimed not at ensuring the constitutional right to free receipt and dissemination of information, not at the improvement of the domain, not at the implementation of the commitments to the Council of Europe and recommendations of PACE resolutions, but at retaining and strengthening the total control over broadcasters, currently practiced”.

Addition to the broadcast law will be enforced on the tenth day after the official publication, that is, on September 27.