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On September 8, the RA NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport moderated by Mkhitar Hayrapetyan convened a regular sitting, where a number of items concerning the cinema sphere were discussed. The draft law on Ratifying the Convention (revised) of the Council of Europe on Cinematographic Joint Production presented by the RA Government was discussed. As the RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Khzmalyan has informed, the goal of the Convention is to modernize the European Convention on Cinematographic Joint Production signed on 2 October 1992 (It entered into force for the RA on 1 April 2005), as well as to provide legal and financial format. After ratifying the draft, ensuring of legal wider and modern format for local film producers is expected to implement joint cinematographic production projects, as well as boosting the cinema production sphere in Armenia.

The Committee debated in the first reading the legislative package on Cinematography, on Making Addenda to the RA Code on Administrative Offences, on Making Addenda to the RA Tax Code, on Amending the RA Law on Customs Regulation authored by the RA NA deputies Anna Kostanyan, Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Vahagn Tevosyan, Artur Manukyan, Arman Yeghoyan.

According to Anna Kostanyan, the package has been worked out for about two years, and the cinema sphere is not legally regulated in our country.

While working out the draft law on Cinematography the authors had discussions with cinematographers, and mainly their recommendations had been taken into consideration. The MPs taking part in the discussion considered necessary the adoption of the legislative package, also presented recommendations and remarks, the great part of which was considered acceptable by the authors.

The RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Khzmalyan presented the negative conclusion of the RA Government on the legislative package.

The MP Artur Manukyan considered necessary the adoption of the legislative package, taking into account the hard situation of the sphere. According to him, the adoption of the initiative will have favourable influence on the development of the cinema sphere.

Afterwards the Committee debated in the first reading the draft law on Making Amendments and Addenda to the RA Law on Education, presented by the RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan. As a result of voting, the draft laws were endorsed by the Committee. They will be included in the draft agenda of the NA upcoming regular sittings.

The Committee member Artur Manukyan made a statement, proposing his colleagues to create a working group for discussing the item of the artists driven out from the support of the Government during the period of the state of emergency. According to the MP, the item relates to the self-employed artists, who are not registered anywhere.

The Committee member Vahagn Tevosyan made another statement. He informed that early in the morning of 8 September 2020, one of the 24-hour broadcasting most important platforms of www.1in.am , Youtube, with about 215.000 subscribers, was stopped the accessibility by the company.

“During the whole day the study made by the local and international professional circles showed that a few weeks ago targeted grouping attack was carried out for substantially suspending the activities of the independent media TV platform and silencing its voice, which was implemented by the former power leaders of Armenia and their newly formed satellite fake factories, being in disagreement with great part of the media content. Regarding the fact, we draw the attention of the local and international human rights organizations and individuals, the power bodies of Armenia, as well as the accredited ambassadors in Armenia.”

The MP proposed the Committee members to hold discussions for excluding such cases.