Draft law to make data of State Register Agency of Legal Entities available for the media free-of-charge has been revised

After holding joint discussions with Deputies of the National Assembly Vahagn Tevosyan and Suren Grigoryan and summarising the concerns raised
at www.e-draft.am, other platforms for public discourse and social media websites and the observations of media experts, the Ministry of Justice has revised the drafts of the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On making a supplement to the Law "On state registration of legal persons, state record-registration of separate subdivisions of legal persons, institutions and individual entrepreneurs" and related laws.

By the revised draft:

●      The formulation "record-registration" has been replaced with the institution of submitting an application. Although the Ministry of Justice has clarified several times that the aforementioned formulation was used in the draft, taking as a basis the regulation in part 2 of Article 13 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On mass media", nevertheless, it is clear that there is a negative understanding of the word "record-registration". Thus, to avoid misreading and misunderstanding, the institution of submitting an application was introduced after revision of the draft. In this regard, the Ministry of Justice reaffirms that the regulation presented for public discourse and existing in the revised draft is solely aimed at making the data of the Register available for a certain composition of entities — natural and legal persons carrying out media activities — for free.

●      Taking into consideration also the fact that media activities in the modern world are also carried out through websites, the term "mass media outlet" — defined by the Law "On mass media" — was expanded after revision so that websites also have the opportunity to benefit from the privilege granted by the State.

Let us also inform that discussions on the revisions made will be held with non-governmental organisations dealing with protection of freedom of speech and interested mass media representatives over the next couple of days.