By Haykaram Nahapetyan
Mirror-Spectator Video Correspondent
STEPANAKERT – Back in 1988 one of the first gains of the Nagorno Karabakh people’s movement against Soviet Azerbaijan’s repressive rule was the establishment of Nagorno Karabakh’s TV channel. Soviet Azerbaijan did not allow autonomous Armenian Karabakh, which had been placed under Azeri rule by Bolshevik dictator Stalin’s decision of 1923, to have its own TV during many decades of Soviet era. NKAO Armenians had to watch Azerbaijani TV’s programs instead.
In the summer of 1988, the freedom-loving people of Artsakh founded their own TV channel. Today Artsakh’s Public TV company (the station got her new official name in 2003, after the law on TV was adopted) continues to function in Stepanakert as a voice of the independent Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The author visited his Artsakhtsi colleagues during the most recent trip to Stepanakert.
“We have received new equipment this year,” Samvel Balayan, the director of the news programs said while he was touring us around Artsakh TV. “The Hayastan All Armenia fund assisted us in arranging the shipping of the HD quality cameras last February,” he continued.
Despite some technical advances, the TV station has a way to go. The same studio serves as a venue for almost all TV programs and shows. Apart from news programs our colleagues routinely prepare programs for children called “Moush-moushik,” educational-cognitive shows (“After Working Hours,” “We”) and many others. “Shushi” is a special project dedicated to Artsakh’s spiritual and historic capital: town of Shushi. “Mam.info” is for young mothers; “Family” for Artsakhsi families.
