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TV AND RADIO NATIONAL COMMISSION RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT OF CLAIM BY "MELTEX" LTD

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To the Economic Court of Armenia

To "MelTex" LTD

(Yerevan, Grigor Lisavoritch Street, 15)

THE APPLICATION RESPONSE

The written request by "MelTex" LTD represented to the Economic Court (02.04.2002) for invalidating TV and Radio National Commission decisions (19.02.2002) is unsubstantiated and not being approved by the Commission. "MelTex" LTD accuses the Commission of infringing the article of 54 th Law on "TV and Radio" as well as not announcing a tender for a licence for broadcasting programs on 37 th frequency range 2 months before (22.11.01) "MelTex" LTD licence deadline. The Commission didn't announce about the tenders "MelTex" LTD. The Commission was to announce tenders from 18.10.01 to 16.02.02 for all those TV and Radio Companies which licences deadlines were drawing on but didn't do that according to the demands of the amendments made upon the Law on "TV and Radio". On 11.09.01 the Armenian Parliament approved the Law on making amendments and additions upon the Law on TV and Radio /223/, on 24.10.01 - the Law on making amendments and additions upon the Law on TV and Radio /251/ which were accordingly put in force on 18.10.01 and 12.12.01. According to them the Commission activity is to be regulated by the Armenian Law on "TV and Radio", the Law on " TV and Radio National Commission reglament" and the Armenian Legislation / i.e. the 37th ,42th ,58th and 59th articles of the Law on "TV and Radio"/. Through the mentioned amendments the order of "TV and Radio National Commission reglament "reglament" Law elaborating and representing to the Parliament was set. The Armenian Law on "TV and Radio National Commission reglament" was put in force on 18.01.2002. Only after the afore-mentioned Law is in force an order for licence tender on TV and Radio programs broadcasating can be elaborated and approved. The tender order was put in force on 16.02.2002. Actually, from 18.10.01 to 18.01.02 the Commission was not empowered to execute functions provided by the 37th article of the Law on "TV and Radio". So it is groundless to regard as the Law infringement tender non-announcement for the 37th frequency range on 22.11.01. What is for the free frequencies it's to be noted that there had been no free frequencies except the 10th meter frequency range. The Commission according to the made decisions N 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24 announced licence tenders for those frequency ranges which broadcasting licence deadlines were already over or would be over two months later. Referring to the comments by the plaintiff on the 48th article of Law on "TV and Radio" it's to be noted that the Law makes no provisions for giving free frequency ranges through one or separate tenders. The issue is settled by the 30th article of the Law on "TV and Radio National Commission reglament" which says that the Commission announces a tender for a certain frequency. According to the 30th article 2 months before TV and Radio programs broadcasting licence deadline or if there are free i.e. non-occupied frequency ranges the Commission announces a broadcasting licence tender on that frequency range. So the frequency giving and licencing are not separate functions. The above-mentioned substantiates that the Commission had approved decisions N 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24 on 19.02.02 according to the Armenian Legislation and acted to its plenary powers. So we kindly ask you to ignore the written request by "MelTex" LTD for invalidating N 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24 decisions made by TV and Radio National Commission on 19.02.02.

Representative of TV and Radio National Commission

Edith Khachatryan, Esq.