Members of the Public Council, a president-appointed body embracing the country’s leading public figures and intellectuals, say their work in the past year led to addressing some of the most vital concerns of society, but also acknowledge that some important issues still remain unattended.

“During the first year of its existence the Public Council has become a full-fledged body in terms of its structure and is now becoming fully fledged in terms of its contents,” says Grigor Badiryan, Dean of the Law Faculty at the French University in Armenia and member of the Justice Council of Armenia who heads the Public Council’s Committee for State and Legal Affairs.

President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree establishing a consultative status body called Public Council still in June 2008. However, it was not until March 11 last year that the president confirmed the statutes of the Council and appointed its 12 members. Thereafter, the rest of the Council’s 24 members were elected from among well-known representatives of science, arts, business and civil society. Now the Council has 12 committees with 66 sub-committees. During one year the Public Council has received a total of 400 applications from citizens who shared their concerns and complaints as well as about 100 proposals and offers.

Also, during this period the Public Council has been a target of criticism of a number of political forces as well as print and online publications. Part of this criticism concerns the Council’s chairman Vazgen Manukyan, one of Serzh Sargsyan’s main rivals in the 2008 presidential elections who would level harsh criticism at the future president then. Some would describe the Council as a president-appointed club [of political retirees] whose members have “long dreamed of having a big office table and a secretary” (as defined by an Armenian blogger who calls himself Democrat in the blogosphere).

The Council’s members, however, say that the 12 months of the body’s existence prove that it serves as a major tool in exposing problems of public concern. According to Council member Astghik Gevorgyan, who is also Chairwoman of the Journalists’ Union, in the past year the body has been actively dealing with major issues and has found certain solutions for them (amnesty, environmental issues, raising the quality of television broadcasts, the issue concerning the professional code of conduct for journalists, etc.).

“There is no problem that isn’t ours, all issues that concern the public also concern us,” says Gevorgyan.

She also says that the Council enjoys freedom in its activities and never hesitates to turn to the president with a sharply stated position about different matters.

Synopsis Armenia Company Executive Director Hovik Musayelyan, also a Council member, considers the adoption of criteria for television and radio broadcasts by the National Commission on Television and Radio at the suggestion of the Public Council as one of the major achievements of the body in the past year.

“It is difficult to say at this moment what will be the eventual result of this process, but we all see that there are some positive shifts in television broadcasts already,” adds Gevorgyan, a veteran journalist.

And Musayelyan, who manages a leading IT company in Armenia, says the Council will soon start working with the Public Services Regulatory Commission, a body that oversees tariffs and pricing policies relating to public services and utilities, on a program of making the internet more accessible and affordable for the population.

“We will work with the Commission for a month and will try to expose all problems, obstacles that impede a greater access to internet and generally the development of information technologies in our country,” says Musayelyan.