Parliamentary opposition demands early termination of powers of RA TV  and Radio Commission member

ArmInfo.  Discussions continued at the February 12 National Assembly session on a draft resolution submitted by the opposition Armenia faction to terminate the mandate of Hakob Hakobyan, a member of the Television and Radio Commission.

Introducing the draft, Artsvik Minasyan, secretary of the Armenia  faction, noted that Hakob Hakobyan, while a member of the Television  and Radio Commission, made political assessments of the Armenian  Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun party in an interview  with the news website 1in.am, which were accompanied by hate speech.  He also made statements regarding various political opponents. 

"What right does a member of an independent state body, who is  constitutionally obligated to exercise neutrality and restraint, have  to make such assessments?" Minasyan asked. According to the  justification for the draft resolution, Parts 5 and 6 of Article 197  of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia stipulate that members  of the Television and Radio Commission may not be members of any  party or otherwise engage in political activity during their term of  office. They must exercise political restraint in their public  speeches. In the event of a violation of any of these conditions, the  powers of a member of the Television and Radio Commission are  terminated by the National Assembly by at least a three-fifths  majority vote of the total number of deputies.

In turn, Acting Chairperson of the Corruption Prevention Commission  Mariam Galstyan noted that the Commission discussed several parts of  Hakob Hakobyan's speech during his interview on February 13, 2025,  but found a violation in only one of them. The Commission noted that  Hakob Hakobyan's speech, to the extent it contained criticism of the  current activities and ideology of a political party, violated  Article 64 of the Code of Conduct.

Nevertheless, Hakob Hakobyan himself denied the charges against him.  He emphasized that he is not an opponent of the ARF, adding that he  spoke of the party solely in a historical context. Hakobyan outlined  his position and discussed various historical and political  realities. In his opinion, correctness should not mean silence or  carefully concealing one's views. "The call for restraint should not  force us to conceal our understanding of history, to be afraid to  speak about corruption-political, economic, and patriotic- because  patriotism can also be corrupt. Moreover, in my interview, I spoke  not about the activities of the ARF, but about a tragic period in  Armenian history," Hakobyan emphasized.

It is worth noting that 33 parliamentarians signed up to debate the  resolution.