Media groups condemn plan to strip Shoghakat TV of public broadcaster status 

By Siranush Adamyan

A coalition of Armenian media organizations has condemned a government-backed bill that would remove Shoghakat TV, a channel operated under the auspices of the Armenian Apostolic Church from the list of Armenia’s public broadcasters. The proposal, set for debate in parliament on Monday, comes amid escalating tensions between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government and the Church.

The draft amendments to the Law on Audiovisual Media would reduce the number of public broadcasters from three to two and eliminate the requirement to maintain an educational or cultural channel. Critics say this change directly targets Shoghakat, known for its spiritual and cultural programming, and represents a politically motivated attempt to weaken the Church’s influence in public life.

“It is evident from both the text and the justification of the draft that the aim is to exclude Shoghakat from the public broadcasting network,” the joint statement reads. “The government’s reasoning is vague and unconvincing, masking an underlying political motive linked to the deepening confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church.”

Signatories — including the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, Yerevan Press Club, Media Initiatives Center, Public Journalism Club, and several other advocacy groups — called on authorities to refrain from “situational manipulations” of media legislation and to preserve content devoted to Armenia’s spiritual, cultural, and educational heritage within the public broadcasting system.

They warned that removing Shoghakat would contradict the public interest:

“Issues of culture, education, science and spirituality—fields crucial for societal development but rarely profitable—must remain a public broadcasting priority.”

The proposed law follows a sharp deterioration in church-state relations. In recent months, the government has launched multiple criminal cases against clergy and figures close to the Church. In June, two archbishops were detained on charges widely denounced as politically driven, and last week authorities opened an investigation based on an alleged recording implicating Catholicos Karekin II.

Two priests were later indicted on coercion charges, and a lawyer defending one of them was jailed after a social media post criticizing investigators. Human rights advocates and media groups view the latest move against Shoghakat as part of the same pattern of pressure on institutions associated with the Church.

Despite criticism, the bill has already received approval from parliament’s standing committee on science, education, culture, and youth affairs and is expected to pass with the ruling majority’s votes.