This Year Armenia Will Finally Have a National Definition of Hate Speech: Chairman of the RRC

In order for Armenia to have quality television companies, it is time to discuss the reduction of the number of slots. This was stated by Tigran Hakobyan, the Chairman of the Radio and Television Committee (RRC), presenting the annual report on the activities of the RRC for 2024 and the state of freedom of information in the audiovisual media sector in the National Assembly.

"The aim is for the advertising field that currently exists to be divided among fewer players," he said. He reminded that Armenia does not have an excess of frequencies to create a second private multiplex. According to him, this issue is regulated not by Armenian, but by international norms.

"The only public multiplex that exists should reflect the formulation of a sovereign, public-interest platform, as well as the strategy of the state with limited use of public resources. The final result, in our opinion, should be the complete depoliticization of television programs, impartiality, pluralism, adherence to journalistic ethics, ensuring the quality of content, and fulfilling the citizen's right to receive information, etc.," Hakobyan emphasized.

He noted that to this end, the Armenian government adopted a decision yesterday to establish a 'Public Media Environment' foundation. The foundation, working with the industry, will be able to encourage the broadcast of public-interest content in the public multiplex through grants.

According to him, the Baltic countries, which have a population similar to that of Armenia, spend 10–15 million euros annually on the creation of public-interest content.

"We place great importance on fighting hate speech and disinformation. We hope that by establishing clear criteria, based on European directives, this year Armenia will finally have a national definition of hate speech, because until now we have had to rely on international documents and treaties. This was stated by the Chairman of the RRC, Tigran Hakobyan, as he presented the annual report on the activities of the RRC for 2024 and the state of freedom of information in the audiovisual media sector in the National Assembly.

By having our own and implementing it into legislation, we can more clearly fight against this evil. But that fight will only be effective if there is an equalization of the rights and responsibilities of all players," he said. More details can be found in the video.