Expert: Citizens who use the services of the media should know how  this or that media product is produced

ArmInfo. The activity of the advertising media market in Armenia, of course, needs to be streamlined. A similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo, President of  Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan.

"The reason for the turnover in our media market is quite large  shadow funds accumulated illegally. These funds are not shown in any  report and, nevertheless, fully support the activities of some media.  First of all, this state of affairs violates the interests of their  audience. Citizens who use the services of the media, they must know  how this or that media product is produced. First of all, in order to  understand whether one or another media can be trusted, "he stressed.

The expert attaches great importance to the regulation of the  advertising market with a view to withdrawing working capital from  the shadows, as well as identifying the real owners of the Armenian  media. According to Navasardyan, this circumstance is very important  from the point of view of the influence of the media on public  opinion. According to him, only time will show how successful the  preliminary initiatives of the authorities in this direction will  turn out to be.

On January 16, the Government of Armenia decided to allocate 26.6  million drams to the Council of the Public Television and Radio  Company of Armenia to conduct an international audit of research and  monitoring of digital television audience conducted by Athmospere  Armenia. Audit purpose - verification of the reliability and  compliance with international criteria of the methodology for  conducting this monitoring. At the same time, the National Assembly  is preparing to adopt the draft amendments to the "Law on the Media",  providing for a change in the rules of the game in this field.

According to Navasardyan, the Armenian media annually receive tens of  millions of dollars from advertising. In his opinion, it is necessary  to achieve the distribution of these amounts among all market  participants, and not between specially defined media. The expert  sees the solution to the issue through certain practical steps. At  the same time, he assessed the possible decision to provide the right  to sell advertising services to the Public Television of Armenia as  quite controversial.

At the last government meeting, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan described Armenian private television channels as corrupt,  and media advertising as monopolized. Expressing dissatisfaction with  the monopoly situation existing in the country's media market, the  prime minister said that the consistent policy of the Government is  the need to obtain specific answers to questions in connection with  various monopolistic phenomena.

In particular, the prime minister noted the presence of two  structures on the market. The first distributes funds from television  advertising, the second conducts ratings of television companies, on  the basis of which these funds are distributed between television  companies. According to his estimates, this mechanism is fully  automated, and the distribution system of advertising on the  television market is monopolized, which gives these two structures  clear control functions over information flows. Pashinyan announced  the readiness of the Government to continue working towards the  eradication of control over the media "by persons connected by family  ties with representatives of the previous government."