Proposed Ban on Criminal Culture Promoting Films and Series from 06:00 to 00:00

The permanent committee on Science, Education, Culture, and Sports of the National Assembly discussed the draft on amendments to the Law on Audiovisual Media, authored by the Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan and the Secretary of the ruling party’s faction Arthur Hovhannisyan.

Specifically, it is proposed to add the words "films and audiovisual broadcasts promoting criminal culture" after "films containing evident violence" in Articles 9 and 57 of the law.

Article 9 of the law pertains to the broadcasting of erotic audiovisual broadcasts and films containing horror and evident violence, as well as broadcasts that may have a negative impact on the health, mental and physical development, and upbringing of minors, which can be aired from 24:00 to 6:00.

The justification for the decision also states that the term "promotion of criminal culture" used in the draft needs clarification or rephrasing, as it may lead to various interpretative comments in legal practice.

Co-author of the draft and ruling party MP Arthur Hovhannisyan highlighted while presenting the bill that today we can encounter films and series containing elements of criminal culture on radio and television, which also ensure high viewership for broadcasters.

“Often, minors want to emulate the heroes of criminal culture, which results in a negative impact on their upbringing. These contain vulgarity, profanity, deny general moral norms, and promote immoral lifestyles, undermining the role of education and upbringing, contributing to the dissemination of criminal cultural norms, behaviors, and speech styles, and romanticizing criminal characters and lifestyles,” the MP noted, adding that the draft proposes to ban the broadcasting of films and series promoting criminal culture from 06:00 until 00:00.