The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG)
has renewed a contract for the carriage of Radio Liberty’s Armenian language
service on a private radio network based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
The contract with AR Radio Intercontinental
runs from August 15, 2007 until September 14, 2008. The network has 23
transmitters, which cover Yerevan and a number of outlying districts.
"We are pleased that many Armenian listeners
will be able to continue to hear our programming on AR Radio Intercontinental,"
said Jeffrey Gedmin, President and Chief Operating Officer of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty. However, Gedmin
noted that efforts to renew a contract with Armenian Public Radio, which covers
the entire country, have so far proven unsuccessful.
"We remain deeply committed to nationwide
coverage of Armenia. Hundreds of thousands of listeners rely on Radio Liberty’s
Armenian Service and depend on us for accurate, comprehensive news," said Gedmin,
noting that the latest national surveys indicate 15 percent of Armenians tune in
each week. Armenian Public Radio
announced in mid-July that it would stop carrying Radio Liberty broadcasts on
August 9, 2007 on the 80 transmitters in the network.
"We have worked diligently to settle any legal
and contractual issues, and believe there is no reason the broadcasts shouldn’t
continue," said Gedmin.
RFE/RL Armenian programmes have been aired
on Armenian Public Radio — Armenia’s top radio network — since 1998. Three
days of contract discussions in Yerevan in mid-July ended without resolution.
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service has been on the air
since 1953 and produces more than three and one half hours of Armenian-language
programming daily in Prague and at its Yerevan Bureau. Armenian Service
programming is available via satellite, local affiliates and the Internet, at
the service’s website www.azatutyun.am
and at www.rferl.org; English-language news about events in Armenia can
be found on the RFE/RL website, at www.rferl.org.