REGIONAL PRO-OPPOSITION TV STATION HOLDS TELETHON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 000261 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, NSC FOR MARIA GERMANO E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM AM SUBJECT: REGIONAL PRO-OPPOSITION TV STATION HOLDS TELETHON TO PAY OFF TAX LEVY REF: A. 07 YEREVAN 1446 ¶B. 07 YEREVAN 1362 ¶C. 07 YEREVAN 1338 ¶D. 07 YEREVAN 1335 YEREVAN 00000261 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: CDA Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b/d). -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The embattled, Gyumri-based GALA TV station continues to fight for survival, hoping supporters will help it raise the USD 82,000 in fines levied last October in apparent political retaliation for airing footage of opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian. After a Gyumri administrative court ruled March 19 in favor of the Armenian tax service's charges that GALA evaded taxes, the independent TV station launched a fund-raising telethon the same day. During the seven days of the telethon, and in spite of a public appeal by Gyumri's mayor not to help the station, GALA has raised 96 percent of the assessed taxes and penalties so far. Over 3,000 donations have reportedly been made by 10,000 people, in Armenia as well as from abroad. An arson attack against one of GALA's leading supporters followed the launch of the telethon. END SUMMARY. -------------- PAY UP, GALA -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On March 19, the administrative court of Gyumri -- Armenia's second most populous city -- upheld a complaint filed by Armenia's State Tax Service that the parent company of the independent GALA TV station had evaded taxes, and so ordered the payment of 25,619,034 Armenian Drams (AMD) (approximately USD 83,000) in alleged back taxes, late fees, and penalties. GALA balked at the tax evasion charge, as did many of its civil society supporters, and characterized the state's pursuit of GALA as politically motivated. ¶3. (SBU) Reftels documented the controversial October 2007 tax audit of GALA and its parent company, noting that the head of the tax service had publicly mentioned violations even before tax auditors launched their inspection. (NOTE: GALA'S owner told us in February that an Embassy visit to his station during the audit probably helped end it shortly thereafter. END NOTE.) The attack on GALA is widely viewed as retribution for its coverage of the presidential political campaign of ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP). GALA has managed to stay on the air in spite of its legal difficulties, thanks largely to the independent means of its owner who was forced to bankroll the station when advertisers pulled their ads in response to the controversy. -------------- -- OK, WE WILL, AND EVEN THE BAD GUYS ARE DONATING -------------- -- ¶4. (C) The March 19 administrative court ruling went into force immediately, but GALA's parent company has three months to appeal the decision in a higher court. We are told the station also plans to appeal the decision at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),if necessary. By the close of business on March 24, judicial enforcement authorities had already collected approximately USD 50,000 of the raised telethon donations, and gave GALA until the close of business on March 25 to raise the remaining sum. In the event they do not raise the remainder in time, GALA could be forced off the air and its property confiscated for sale at auction. GALA representatives told us March 25 that U.S. contributors to the telethon fund were complaining that their bank transfers had been held up inside Armenia, and had not reached GALA's bank account. GALA said it was concerned the GOAM could be abusing its legal right to put a hold on transfers made for purposes of money-laundering or of checks to finance terrorism. ¶5. (C) Levon Barseghian, director of Gyumri's Asparez Press Club and the Gyumri civil society leader who has spearheaded GALA's public efforts to stay on the air, told Emboff March 24 that even judicial enforcement personnel -- in the act of serving papers -- took the opportunity personally to donate 5,000 AMD (roughly USD 16) each to GALA's telethon fund. GALA TV is also fighting another court battle with the Mayor's office of Gyumri over the TV-tower that Gala has used to broadcast its signal. The Mayor says GALA has illegally YEREVAN 00000261 002.2 OF 003 used the tower, and ordered GALA to pay for its retroactive use. GALA's owner says the sum the Mayor is requesting is exorbitant, and just one more tool the authorities are using to drive GALA off the air. A legal ruling on the TV tower is expected March 28. According to Barseghian, GALA has subsequently received offers from villages in the outlying Shirak region to post its transmitters free of charge in the event they lose their legal battle with the Mayor's office. (COMMENT: The mayor's contention that GALA has illegally used the television tower is probably correct. Indications suggest that GALA probably bribed petty officials some years ago to turn a blind eye to GALA's use of the tower. However, the legal status and rightful ownership of the Soviet-era broadcast tower has been murky for many years, and it also strains credulity to believe that Gyumri officials have not long been fully aware of this usage. END COMMENT.) -------------- GALA NOW A PUBLIC ISSUE -------------- ¶6. (C) Levon Barseghian told Emboff that GALA anticipated it would lose the politically-motivated tax evasion charge, and decided to hold a telethon even before the announcement of the March 19 ruling. According to GALA, the telethon has elicited support and donations from people both inside and outside Armenia. RFE/RL reported that some donors made in-kind contributions in the form of books or works of art, authorizing GALA to raise money through their sale. Leading opposition members of parliament have appeared for live telethon interviews and donated money themselves. (COMMENT: It has come to our attention that many of our own locally employed staff have contributed to the telethon, as have a number of our civil society contacts in Yerevan. This seems representative of a prevailing public view among Yerevan's intelligentsia that GALA is the victim of a politically-motivated effort to drive them out of business, and many Yerevantsi seem to view helping GALA as a concrete gesture of opposition to the government's heavy-handed ways. END COMMENT.) ¶7. (U) GALA's owner Vahan Khachatrian told RFE/RL that he initially opposed such fund-raising, but bowed to pressure from supporters once he realized GALA had become a public issue that concerned the wider Armenian public. GALA says it now considers itself to be a true public television outlet since dropping commercial advertising and depending on public support to remain afloat. At the opening of business on March 25, GALA had raised approximately USD 79,824. -------------- MAYOR INADVERTENTLY SPURS DONATIONS -------------- ¶8. (SBU) During a March 20 evening program on Shant TV, another Gyumri-based TV station with national viewership, Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasian urged the public not to help GALA, asserting that the pro-LTP Armenian National Movement party had already provided to GALA money to cover the tax levy, and that GALA was now cheating the people out of more money. The mayor's statements apparently unleashed an uproar, with people calling into the live telethon broadcast to repudiate the mayor, offering new donations or upping previous contributions. Barseghian told Emboff that many of the people donating were doing so to show their opposition to the mayor who has been dogged by corruption allegations. He is also the head of the local branch of the ruling Republican party led by President-elect Serzh Sargsian. -------------- PRESIDENT-ELECT WEIGHS IN? -------------- ¶9. (C) Levon Barseghian alleged to Emboff that President-elect Serzh Sargsian sent an emissary with an offer to GALA five days before the March 19 ruling. The emissary offered the GOAM's dropping of the entire case in exchange for a public letter from GALA requesting the President-elect forgive its tax debt. GALA's owner declined the offer, saying he intended to raise the money publicly, even if that resulted in the eventual closure of the station. ¶10. (C) Barseghian told Emboff that in addition to the tax penalty, police had begun a criminal case into the alleged tax evasion. He added that it remained unclear how the case would proceed after the paying of the back taxes and administrative penalty, but feared it represented yet another YEREVAN 00000261 003.2 OF 003 pressure tactic by the authorities to pursue GALA. Barseghian said GALA's owner was firm in his resolve to fight on every front, and that he was prepared to take the criminal case as well to the ECHR. -------------- ARSON ATTACK ON ASPAREZ PRESS CLUB CAR -------------- ¶10. (SBU) The Asparez Press Club (APC) president's car was attacked by arsonists at approximately 1:00 am March 21 in the press club's parking lot, just after fellow APC official Levon Barseghian drove it back from appearing at the telethon. APC security guards witnessed two individuals fleeing the scene after apparently just having set the blaze. According to Barseghian, police who arrived on the scene initially doubted the source of the fire as arson, positing it could have resulted from an electrical short, but they eventually launched an arson investigation after confirming the presence of gasoline on both ends of the vehicle. APC responded to the arson attack by announcing a reward of two cars of a similar model (Opel Vectra) to the one that was destroyed, to any policeman who solves the crime. Arson attacks are not foreign to Asparez; on January 18 the window of their Gyumri office was set on fire by unidentified assailants. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶11. (C) In the latest skirmish between GALA and the authorities, GALA's creative public relations maneuvering appear to have given it the upper hand, at least for now. The administrative court ruling has resurrected the pre-election case -- latent during the election period -- which continues to smell like an assault on independent media. We have said before that GALA's owner is no angel. His PR adviser and civil society ally Levon Barseghian is personally known to us as a respected advocate for media freedoms, albeit perhaps now one of pro-LTP political bent. Once again the authorities seem to have underestimated the public backlash that its pursuit of GALA continues to generate. END COMMENT. PENNINGTON