EMBATTLED REGIONAL TV STATION SCORES LEGAL VICTORY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000939

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM KJUS KPAO AM
SUBJECT: EMBATTLED REGIONAL TV STATION SCORES LEGAL VICTORY

REF: YEREVAN 494
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YEREVAN 378
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(U) Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly.

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) The regional GALA TV company scored a legal victory on
October 31 when Armenia's Cassation Court overruled a lower court's
verdict ordering the removal of GALA's antenna from a Soviet-era
broadcast tower. While welcoming the victory on the antenna, GALA
was less pleased that the Cassation Court refused to consider its
second complaint -- GALA's appeal of the USD 87,000 that it was
forced to pay for reported tax evasion. GALA now plans to take its
tax levy complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. END
SUMMARY.

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GALA SCORES LEGAL VICTORY
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2. (SBU) On October 31, Armenia's Court of Cassation overruled the
February 29 verdict of the Shirak region's General Jurisdiction
Court, which had ruled in favor of the Gyumri municipality against
GALA TV. That ruling mandated the removal of the TV company's
broadcast transmitter from an obsolete, Soviet-era transmission
tower owned by Gyumri's municipality. GALA had been using the tower
without compensating the city, which the city's leadership had
apparently tolerated until GALA aired a September 2007 pre-election
campaign speech by ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian that was
critical of the ruling authorities. Marshals of the court
subsequently shut down GALA's transmission on April 16 (ref D) when
they went to remove the transmitter, only to restore its connection
the next day -- during a visit to the Shirak Governor by the Charge
d'Affaires -- after GALA's owner reportedly reached a provisional
accord with officials to continue broadcasting.


3. (SBU) With its October 31 ruling, the Cassation Court remanded
the case to the Shirak lower court for reconsideration. Despite the
fact that the lower court has yet to reconsider the case, GALA's
owner Vahan Khachatrian told Poloffs he was virtually certain that
the new ruling from Shirak's Court of General Jurisdiction would
correspond with the Cassation Court verdict. Khachatrian based his
judgment on the fact that Armenia's lower courts rarely, if ever,
rule against Cassation Court decisions. (NOTE: Procedurally, when it
wants to reverse a lower court decision, the Cassation Court most
often returns the decision to the lower court for "reconsideration."
This amounts, de facto, to overturning the lower court's ruling and
instructing the lower court to change its decision. END NOTE)


4. (SBU) Khachatrian told Poloffs that he expected the Cassation
Court's ruling on the antenna all along. He said the fallout from a
decision ordering the antenna's removal, and effective silencing of
GALA, would have created a huge uproar against the authorities, who
are already on the defensive on media freedom issues.

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BUT BATTLE ONLY HALF WON
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5. (SBU) In spite of the antenna victory, Khachatrian was unhappy
about the result of GALA's other appeal to the Cassation Court.
GALA unsuccessfully appealed to the Court to rescind the March 19
ruling of Gyumri's Administrative Court that fined GALA
approximately USD 87,000 for tax evasion (ref E). In response,
Khachatrian said that GALA soon intends to file a complaint
rescinding the fine to the European Court of Human Rights. GALA had
raised the funds to pay this tax levy with a spectacularly
successful telethon campaign, which raised significant funds both
domestically and from Armenians abroad. This was testimony to the
fact that the GALA tax case had become a totemic vehicle, for many
Armenians, of public resistance against what they considered
government repression. Even after paying off the outsize tax
assessment, GALA was considerably better off financially than it had
been beforehand, having received contributions well in excess of
what the government demanded.

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COMMENT
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6. (SBU) With the Cassation Court's somewhat unexpected antenna
ruling, the endless saga of the embattled GALA TV station -- and the
freedom of Armenia's broadcast media in general -- continues. We

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have made this case one of our priorities in bilateral discussions
on human rights, and it is encouraging to see a positive development
for a change. It remains to be seen, however, whether the victory
represents a temporary let-up on GALA until the next confrontation,
or a new hands-off, post-election approach by the authorities on
regional TV outlets. GALA remains a potent symbol of freedom of
expression and popular resistance against authorities'
politically-motivated actions. We could wish that the Armenian
public had a more upright champion to support, given our lingering
reservations about the GALA owner's business ethics.

YOVANOVITCH