Public Radio Company of Armenia

The Public Radio Company of Armenia is Armenia’s oldest radio broadcaster. Its first experimental transmission, a 25-minute programme from Yerevan railway station, went out on 1 September 1926; regular broadcasting began on 15 June 1927. The company produces content in Armenian and 11 additional languages and distributes programming through FM, online and satellite services. It is one of two public broadcasting companies managed by the Public Broadcaster’s Council, alongside the Public Television Company of Armenia. Armen Koloyan has served as Executive Director since August 2024.

Media assets

National radio: Public Radio of Armenia, also described as the First Programme, and Im Radio, its youth-oriented service

Additional programmes: Arevik, aimed at children, young people and families; and Vem, carrying spiritual, educational, cultural and musical programming in Yerevan and surrounding areas

International: Public Radio of Armenia’s multilingual services, historically associated with the Radio Yerevan name

Ownership and governance

The Public Radio Company is a closed joint-stock company wholly owned by the Republic of Armenia. The Public Broadcaster’s Council exercises the state’s shareholder and governance powers under the current Law on Audiovisual Media.

The Council has seven members, all appointed by the Prime Minister following a statutory competition conducted by a temporary commission formed by the audiovisual regulator. Members serve six-year terms and may be removed early only on grounds specified by law. The Council elects its chair from among its members by secret ballot for a four-year term.

These arrangements contain substantive procedural safeguards, including competition, fixed terms and restricted early removal. They do not, however, establish an appointing authority independent of the executive: final appointment of every Council member rests with the Prime Minister.

The Council approves the public broadcasters’ statutes, programming policies and journalistic code; determines organisational and remuneration arrangements; approves expenditure estimates; and appoints executive directors selected through competition. It must also commission an independent annual audit and submit an annual programming and financial report to the National Assembly.

Armen Koloyan was selected as Executive Director in July 2024 and appointed by the Council on 31 July for a five-year term, taking office on 8 August. His appointment was confirmed by Public Radio itself and the European Broadcasting Union. He previously spent more than thirty years at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and co-founded the Armenian Saturday School in Prague.

The appointment followed a dispute involving his predecessor, Garegin Khumaryan. In February 2024, Khumaryan published an article on Public Radio’s website disagreeing with statements made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during an interview and criticising the interviewer’s performance. The Council accused him of using his position and the broadcaster’s website to express an unchallenged personal view. The Council’s Ethics Monitoring Body subsequently found no violation of journalistic ethics.

Khumaryan’s five-year term expired in April 2024 and was not extended. After an initial competition produced no winner, Koloyan was selected in a second procedure. Khumaryan and another unsuccessful candidate, Lusine Petrosyan, challenged the selection in court, alleging that the process was unlawful and politically influenced; the Council rejected those allegations. State Media Monitor did not establish the final outcome of the litigation. The dispute was documented by RFE/RL.

The company’s charter does not establish a separate board of directors. Current operations are managed by the Executive Director, while the Council exercises the principal shareholder and supervisory powers.

Source of funding and budget

Public Radio is financed principally from the state budget, supplemented by advertising and service income.

Armenia’s 2026 budget provides approximately AMD 8.285 billion for the Public Broadcaster’s Council and the public broadcasting system as a whole. This allocation covers the Council, Public Television and Public Radio and must not be presented as Public Radio’s individual budget.

Company-level financial information is nevertheless available. According to Public Radio’s 2024 financial report, the company reported total revenue of AMD 923.855 million, advertising income of AMD 11.748 million, equivalent to 1.3 per cent of revenue, and an operating loss of AMD 57.034 million.

Advertising therefore exists but remains a minor source of income. The AMD 6.3 billion figure carried in the published record cannot plausibly represent Public Radio’s individual 2022 allocation and has been removed.

Separately, in June 2026 the Government approved an additional AMD 198.6 million for the first phase of Public Radio’s technical modernisation and renovation. The broadcaster said the funding would replace obsolete equipment and improve its digital production infrastructure. Public Radio reported the decision.

The Law on Audiovisual Media provides that funding of the public broadcasters may not fall below the previous year’s level, except where it changes proportionately with overall state budget expenditure.

Editorial independence

The Law on Audiovisual Media prohibits unlawful interference in public broadcasters’ activities and requires public-service programming to uphold objectivity, impartiality, diversity and pluralism. The Council approves the broadcaster’s programming policy and journalistic code. Competitive appointments, fixed Council terms and limited grounds for removal provide additional procedural protection.

These safeguards do not fully insulate the broadcaster from political influence. All seven Council members are appointed by the Prime Minister, and the audiovisual regulator lacks authority to impose sanctions on public broadcasters, as OSCE/ODIHR recorded during the 2026 parliamentary election.

Historically, Public Radio was regarded as operating closer to a public-service ethos than Public Television, partly because its smaller audience attracted less political attention. That assessment should now be treated as background rather than evidence of its current position.

Content analyses conducted for State Media Monitor in March 2023, June 2024 and March 2025 identified an increasing alignment with government communications. They found that coverage of official visits, government activity and public policy was commonly presented with little critical distance and that the broadcaster’s tone increasingly resembled that of state-aligned media.

The 2024 leadership dispute provides additional evidence of pressure at institutional level. The Council publicly criticised Executive Director Khumaryan after he challenged statements made by the Prime Minister and the quality of a Public Radio interview, although the broadcaster’s Ethics Monitoring Body found no breach of journalistic standards. The subsequent selection of his successor was challenged by two candidates and remained the subject of litigation.

State Media Monitor did not identify independent monitoring specifically examining Public Radio’s output during the 2026 parliamentary election campaign. OSCE/ODIHR’s finding that Public Television’s newscasts were biased in favour of the ruling party concerns a separate company and should not be attributed to Public Radio.

AI and digital policy

State Media Monitor could not identify a published Public Radio policy governing generative artificial intelligence, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure, and could not establish the extent to which AI is used in production.

Classification rationale

The Public Radio Company of Armenia remains classified State-Controlled Media (SC).

It is state-owned and state-governed. The Republic of Armenia owns all the company’s shares, and the Public Broadcaster’s Council exercises its principal governance powers. All seven Council members are appointed by the Prime Minister. Statutory competitions, fixed terms and restricted removal grounds provide procedural protection but do not create an appointing authority independent of the executive.

It is predominantly state-funded. Public funding is its principal financial resource. Advertising contributed only 1.3 per cent of reported 2024 revenue, while a further AMD 198.6 million was allocated by the Government for technical modernisation in 2026.

Its editorial independence is compromised in practice. State Media Monitor’s three rounds of content analysis recorded increasing alignment with government communications. The Council’s response to Director Khumaryan after he criticised the Prime Minister’s statements and an on-air interview provides additional evidence of institutional pressure, particularly because the Ethics Monitoring Body found no journalistic breach.

September 2026