Bad news for Romania good news bill

Bad news for Romania's good news bill: it has been declared unconstitutional by the Romanian constitutional court. In a refreshing victory for common sense, particularly bearing in mind that this is the same court that declared decriminalising defamation unconstitutional, the Court ruled that the bill violates broadcasters' right to freedom of expression.

Strasbourg court rules - finally - for A1+

The European Court of Human Rights this morning delivered its judgment in the second application by Armenian broadcasters A1+ and ruled that the denial of a licence on seven occasions did not meet requirements of lawfulness and therefore constituted a violation of the broadcaster's right to freedom of expression.

This is a very significant decision both as regards A1+ itself and as regards the wider consequences. The judgment refers to guidelines adopted by the Committee of Ministers and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and states, point blank, that any process by which licences are awarded or denied simply on a points basis and no further reasons are given violates Article 10 of the ECHR. In this, it entrenches and expands the Court's 2007 similar judgment in Glas Nadezhda Eood v. Bulgaria. I haven't surveyed laws in other countries but my gut feeling is that this will have implications across Europe.

Note that A1+'s first application, no. 37780/02, was rejected ratione temporis at the tail-end of May 2008, and that we are still awaiting judgment in Noyan Tapan's not dissimilar application (37784/02 - declared partly admissible in 2004).

Armenian court rules broadcasting fee system unconstitutional

The Armenian Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that Article 53(3) of the Armenian Law on Television and Radio, which gives the government unfettered discretion to determine the level of the broadcasting fee, is unconstitutional. The case had been brought by Radio Hay, a Yerevan-based broadcaster, who complained that the Ministry of Transport and Communications had demanded it pay a fee of USD27,000 when other broadcasters paid far less.

The full judgment will eventually appear here.