The church has co-financed the Shoghakat channel together with the government ever since founding it about two decades ago. The TV station has mostly aired cultural, religious and educational programs and not reported on political developments in the country, including Pashinian’s escalating standoff with the top clergy.
Pashinian’s political allies first called for an end to the government funding and Shoghakat’s broadcasts last year during massive anti-government protests led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian. They renewed those calls after Pashinian began pressuring Garegin and other senior clerics in June this year to resign.
In October, the Armenian parliament passed a government-backed bill abolishing Shoghakat’s status of a “public broadcaster” that guaranteed it a slot in the national digital package accessible to TV viewers across the country. Citing that bill, Pashinian’s cabinet decided to dissolve a public broadcaster retransmitting Shoghakat’s programs. The decision means that the channel will be pulled off the air in the coming days or weeks.
Parliament deputies from Pashinian’s ruling Civil Contract party have claimed that Shoghakat has small viewership, criticized the quality of its programs and accused the channel of inefficiently using government funding. The TV station’s executive director, Manya Ghazarian, dismissed the claims in October, saying that they are not backed up by any research or other objective data. Seven Armenian media associations similarly said in a joint statement that the official rationale for stripping Shoghakat of its air frequency is “not convincing” and “misleading.”
Earlier this year, Ara Shirinian, the head of Armenia’s Public Broadcasting Council, spoke out against ending government funding for Shoghakat which totaled just 185 million drams ($480,000) last year. He argued that Armenian state television would need much more money to produce the kind of content that is aired by Shoghakat.
Armenian opposition leaders have linked its impending shutdown with Pashinian’s ongoing campaign against Garegin. The supreme head of the Armenian Church remains defiant in the face of the intensifying government pressure.