Amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s escalating confrontation with the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian government has decided to dissolve the public broadcaster tied to Shoghakat TV, a spiritual and cultural television channel founded by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, bringing the channel’s operations to an end on January 1 following the withdrawal of its public funding under amendments to Armenia’s Law on Audiovisual Media adopted by parliament in October.
The decision was adopted at the Armenian government’s latest session on Thursday under the non-reported agenda items. The draft’s justification states: “This draft proposes the dissolution of the ‘Spiritual and Cultural Public Television’ closed joint-stock company, with the basis for its dissolution being the Law No. HO-329-N of October 24, 2025, on amending the Law on Audiovisual Media.”
Shoghakat TV broadcasts 18 hours a day via public spiritual-cultural channels and Armenian Public TV’s satellite channel.
Shoghakat TV and the Mother See have not yet issued a public response to the decision.
In October, the Armenian parliament adopted a government-backed bill stripping Shoghakat of its status as a public broadcaster, a designation that had guaranteed the channel a nationwide digital broadcast slot accessible to viewers across the country. Citing that legislation, Pashinyan’s cabinet subsequently decided to dissolve the public broadcaster responsible for retransmitting Shoghakat’s programs. As a result, the channel is expected to be taken off the air in the coming days or weeks.
The legislative change, authored by Civil Contract MPs Taguhi Ghazaryan and Sisak Gabrielyan, amends the Law on Audiovisual Media to reduce the number of public broadcasters from three to two, a move that automatically excludes Shoghakat. Currently, Armenia has three public TV channels with public status: the First Channel (the main state broadcaster), Lurer (news), and Shoghakat, which has long aired spiritual, cultural, and educational content.
The ruling party argued that the reform will ensure “more efficient distribution of financial resources.” Ghazaryan said the change would enable the Public Interest Media Environment Foundation to distribute funds “more effectively” among all multiplex TV channels, claiming that the current system duplicates content and wastes resources.
Opposition lawmakers and press freedom groups have condemned the decision as politically motivated and an assault on free expression.
“What is happening today contradicts the principles of democracy and the fundamental right to freedom of speech,” the president of the opposition Aprelu Yerkir Party, Mane Tandilyan, wrote on Facebook, adding that “the authorities no longer even bother to hide their true intentions and objectives, their wish to exclude ‘Shoghakat’ from the list of public broadcasters is already more than evident.”
Minister of High-Tech Industry Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, whose office supported the bill, claimed that no broadcaster would be “shut down” as a result of the reform and that Shoghakat could continue operating “under new conditions” by applying for grants from the newly created foundation intended to support “cultural, spiritual, and educational programming.”
But the opposition dismissed those assurances. “It’s difficult to convince the public that this is merely a financial decision,” said MP Gegham Nazaryan. “It will be perceived as a statement that a spiritually oriented channel is no longer needed.”
For months, Pashinyan has been pressuring Catholicos Karekin II to step down, while government allies have publicly accused the Church of meddling in politics.
Calls to end Shoghakat’s public status first surfaced last year during large anti-government protests led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and have intensified since the summer, when tensions between the government and the clergy escalated.
In June 2024, Civil Contract MP Arsen Torosyan already signaled the intention to close the TV channel.
“I even suggested another source of funding. Why not give Shoghakat’s 206 million drams to Public TV so that it can enrich its cultural and educational programming, produce more content, and close the Shoghakat issue entirely?” Torosyan said, during a discussion in the National Assembly on the execution of the 2023 budget.
Press freedom organizations had earlier criticized the move. In a joint statement, seven Armenian media groups called the government’s justification “not convincing” and “misleading,” arguing that “the initiative is based not on financial or managerial concerns but on the escalating confrontation between the authorities and the Armenian Apostolic Church.”
Ara Shirinyan, Chairman of Armenia’s Council of Public Television, likewise opposed the bill, noting that Shoghakat received just 185 million drams (about $480,000) in government funding last year and warning that Armenian state television would need far more resources to produce comparable cultural and educational content.
Following the decision to take Shoghakat off the air, several private broadcasters expressed support. Channel 5 TV Director Harutyun Harutyunyan said the station is ready to allocate one hour of airtime for Shoghakat’s spiritual and cultural programs.
Similarly, Yerkir Media TV announced that it will also provide airtime to Shoghakat starting January 1. “Highly valuing the work of Shoghakat television and taking into account the circumstances of its removal from the air, Yerkir Media TV declares that, from January 1, it is ready to allocate broadcast time to Shoghakat’s colleagues,” said Yerkir Media Director Artak Sargsyan.
