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Media Advocate initiative issued a statement on the media bill drafted by the Armenian Ministry of Justice. The statement reads:

"On March 26, President Armen Sarkissian signed the legislative package to make the data of the state register free of charge for the media. According to the previous regulation, 3,000 AMD state duty (excluding VAT) was charged for receiving information from the state register.

The bill was submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Justice. The draft law was adopted in the first reading by the National Assembly in January of this year, and was fully adopted by the parliament in the second reading on March 6, 2020. This law has been in force for about two weeks.

AntiFake.am has explored e-register.am – the official website of the State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, to find and fill out an application for free access to the data of the state register for media, but it failed to find any document. The entity replied that the document should be approved by the Ministry of Justice, but nothing has been done yet.

Media Advocate initiative urges to implement the provisions of this law. In fact, the ministry was not ready for the uninterrupted implementation of the package of legislative changes presented by itself. Such a practice is unacceptable and creates additional obstacles for the activities of the media. If the tools for the implementation of the law were not ready and the mechanisms were not polished, then the actions of the ministry were nothing but attempts to raise its own rating for a short period of time."