Vigen is my friend, but the truth is more expensive: Radio Van leader on ad restriction bill

Vigen is my friend, but the truth is more expensive. This statement was made by Shushanik Arevshatyan, the head of Radio Van, on her Facebook page, addressing the anti-gambling initiative proposed by Alen Simonyan and Hrachya Hakobyan, which aims to remove advertisements related to betting companies from broadcasts and the media space.

“For the past two years, MPs Alen Simonyan and Hrachya Hakobyan have been busy creating bills to restrict advertisements of online casinos, totalizators, and betting companies in the Armenian media space. All of this has led, thanks to two years of relentless and diligent work, first to the restriction of advertising time and quantity, and now to a complete ban,” she noted.

“One could believe in the good intentions of the aforementioned authors directed at saving the nation, if it weren’t for a very important circumstance: with whose money are the new MPs of an independent republic traveling in Greece, buying villas, and rejoicing, precisely with the funds of Vigen Badalyan's 'Vivaro' company, the largest player in Armenia.