AUTHORITIES DOG ARMENIAN TV STATION FOR COVERAGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 001362 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2017 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KDEM AM SUBJECT: AUTHORITIES DOG ARMENIAN TV STATION FOR COVERAGE OF TER-PETROSSIAN REF: A. A. YEREVAN 1347 ¶B. B. YEREVAN 1338 ¶C. C. YEREVAN 1307 ¶D. D. YEREVAN 1303 ¶E. E. YEREVAN 1302 ¶F. F. YEREVAN 1353 YEREVAN 00001362 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b,d) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) On November 7, Emboffs visited GALA TV in Gyumri to learn more about its ongoing run-in with authorities, widely attributed to GALA's October 14 airing of a critical speech by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP). According to GALA's owner, the authorities' threats before airing the speech and the tax inspection and tax evasion charges which ensued "show the real panic" that LTP's entry into the February 2008 presidential race has caused. The president of the Gyumri press club and the director of a Gyumri human rights organization concurred, saying the current ruling administration has "nowhere else to go," and "will lose power" if it ceases its long-standing "manipulation" of the political environment. GALA vows it will continue to fight to stay on the air in spite of dwindling advertising and the tax evasion charges. Although an adviser to President Kocharian insisted to us that GALA is not being singled out by the tax authorities, we regard GALA's ordeal as a disturbing development for Armenia's approaching presidential election. End summary. -------------- BACKGROUND -------------- ¶2. (C) On October 14 GALA TV, a local television station based in Gyumri -- capital of the Shirak region -- with a viewership of approximately 250,000, came under the scrutiny of government officials after airing a speech delivered September 21 by ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP, see ref B). GALA aired the 20-minute address on October 14 as a paid program. GALA's owner, Vahan Khachatrian, told Emboffs he received warnings not to air the September 21 speech from various government agencies, including the President's office, the National Commission on TV and Radio (NCTR),and the National Security Service (NSS),among others. The warnings were apparently provoked by GALA's advance advertisements that it would broadcast the speech. GALA aired the speech, as well as excerpts from LTP's October 26 rally in Yerevan at which the former president formally announced his presidential candidacy for the February 19 poll. -------------- WHAT MAKES LTP A THREAT? -------------- ¶3. (C) GALA's owner said the media and political crackdowns underway in Armenia (reftels),including his own case, "show the real panic" that LTP's re-entry into national politics has caused among the ruling authorities. The issue, he said, boils down to "who should be on and off the air." He said that one of the officials who cautioned him not to air LTP complained to him that "we have made deals" with everyone else, and "you are messing things up." He said the authorities fear "the real prospect" of losing to LTP, which explains the severity and breadth of the crackdowns. "One sees the real face" of the authorities, he added, positing that LTP was a "political heavyweight" who knows what he's doing and "knows how to fight." Seyran Martirosyan, director of the Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Protection Center based in Gyumri, said "the power wants to reproduce itself" and that "they cannot accept that one person disagrees with them." Martirosyan and Levon Barseghyan, president of Gyumri's Asparez Press Club, told Emboffs that "Serzh Sargsian and Robert Kocharian have nowhere else to go" and "will lose power" if they cease their long-standing "manipulation and exploitation" of the political environment to their favor. -------------- TROUBLE BEGINS AFTER LTP SPEECH AIRED -------------- ¶4. (C) GALA's owner said that after airing the speech, he was notified that the State Tax Service (STS) was launching a tax inspection into his businesses. Khachatrian told Emboffs he had never been audited in his seven years in business, nor during his last two years as founder/owner of GALA -- though YEREVAN 00001362 002.2 OF 003 he had requested audits on two previous occasions. Lida Nanian, the former head of the Shirak region tax authority, and the region's current governor, recently stated to the press that regional tax inspectors never had reason to audit GALA, and that it was a "good taxpayer." GALA's tax audit coincided with a similar tax inspection into the business group of parliamentarian Khachatur Sukiasian, an Armenian oligarch who has recently come out publicly in support of LTP's candidacy. ¶5. (C) Khachatrian recounted to Emboffs other twists to the tax audit. Three of the six tax inspectors were from Yerevan (as opposed to all six coming from Gyumri). During the first tax inspection visit to GALA, Khachatrian confronted an inspector about an article published that morning in a pro-government newspaper which claimed that the inspectors had already found violations at GALA. Khachatrian pressed the inspector on the supposed violations, to which the inspector stated his inspection was not complete. Like all other visits by the tax inspection team, the exchange was taped and aired on GALA's news programs, which Emboffs viewed. On November 6, an argument between the inspectors and GALA staff resulted in one of the inspectors accosting and putting a choke-hold on the GALA cameraman who was filming the dispute. -------------- -------------- GALA ACCUSED OF TAX VIOLATIONS ... WHICH MIGHT SPELL DOOM -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) On November 12 the STS formally accused GALA of tax evasion (in the amount of 80,000 USD) and other violations. STS charged that GALA had inaccurately reported its advertisement revenues in order to pay less tax. In addition to tax violations, GALA was accused of illegally using a TV tower, and its parent company Chap was accused of manufacturing fireworks without a license in 2001. Khachatrian publicly derided the accusations, calling them "absurd." He acknowledged that his company indeed manufactured fireworks without a license in 2001, but stated that he paid taxes on the production, and until now was never questioned about this. Levon Barseghyan, Asparez Press Club president, alleged to Polfsn November 13 that the authorities declared an excessively high, trumped-up figure so they could pursue GALA with criminal charges. Otherwise, fines would be their only legal recourse. He added that it is virtually inconceivable for any commercial enterprise, let alone a local TV company in the economically depressed Shirak area, to generate such a high tax liability that it could then evade. Citing the recent arrest of employees working for the Yerevan-based oligarch Khachatur Sukiasian, Barseghyan also expressed concern over the fate of GALA's executive director, who could be arrested on the stated charges. He said they are considering sending her to Russia or Ukraine, and/or requesting political asylum abroad. -------------- -------------- GALA TV STICKING TO ITS PRINCIPLES NO MATTER THE COST -------------- -------------- ¶7. (C) Khachatrian vowed to stay the course, but told Emboffs he had "no hope under these authorities" that he would succeed. He said he had been warned not to visit Yerevan, otherwise he might be arrested. Exhibiting a sense of humor about the events, he said he was "keeping to his principles" in airing footage of the tax inspection. He said he would continue to operate GALA until his money ran out, which he estimated would be by the end of December now that the authorities had pressured 27 of his 30 advertisers to pull their spots. It is now unclear, however, if he'll be able to stay afloat with the new tax evasion and related charges. Barseghyan and Seyran Martirosyan implored the U.S. government and international organizations to pressure the GOAM to lift its restrictions of press freedom in the run-up to the February presidential election. -------------- PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER RESPONDS -------------- ¶8. (C) In a meeting concerning President Kocharian's allegations of pro-LTP bias in Radio Liberty programming, CDA pointed out to presidential adviser Armen Gevorkian that the GALA case only fuels suspicions that the authorities are trying to intimidate Armenian broadcast media for the election. Gevorkian strongly denied the accusation, insisting that "nobody hears about the four other TV stations that are being audited, including one owned by an American citizen." (Note: Gevorkian was referring to "Armenia TV," YEREVAN 00001362 003.2 OF 003 which is partly owned by Gerard Cafesjian, a prominent Armenian-American. End note.) CDA also raised the GALA case with Prime Minister Sargsian in a discussion of Armenia's MCC scorecard indicators (ref A). The PM said that although he was not familiar with the details of GALA's problems, "it is not something Washington should be concerned about." -------------- STAYING QUIET WILL KEEP YOU OUT OF TROUBLE -------------- ¶9. (C) Emboffs visited one of GALA's competitors, Tsayg TV, in order to hear another perspective on the GALA affair. Margarita Minasyan, owner of Tsayg TV, said GALA is overreacting in an attempt to improve its ratings. She viewed the tax audit as just another normal tax inspection, and said GALA had nothing to fear if its books were in order. When queried whether Gyumri TV stations receive warnings from the authorities on the political content of their programs, Minasyan initially demurred, then later admitted that it was normal, and that she had been directly contacted in the past by the head of Armenia's National Commission on TV and Radio. (Note: The commission was appointed by President Kocharian. End note.) She recounted how Tsayg in the past had chosen which warnings to heed. Minasyan explained she kept her station afloat by maintaining a low profile, and not making a big fuss as GALA had done. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶10. (C) While we have no way of knowing the whole truth behind GALA's taxes -- it is reasonable to suspect that GALA may have played as fast and loose with its accounting as do most Armenian firms, and not all of our contacts speak favorably of Khachatrian's rectitude -- the strong impression is that GALA is suffering political retribution for having the temerity to broadcast LTP's speeches in defiance of instructions from the authorities. While willing to tolerate dissent in the print press, whose audience share is much less, the GOAM likes to keep a tight lid on television broadcasts. Along with a new political attack on Radio Liberty (ref E),this augurs badly for the GOAM's intentions to allow a level playing field for the presidential election. End comment. PENNINGTON