ARCHIVES: Armenia
Reporters Without Borders has expressed concern at a bill amending article 1087.1 of the civil code that Armenia’s parliament is to debate on Monday. It would hold media responsible for comments posted on their websites and for content they reproduce from elsewhere on the Internet. The parliamentarians who drafted the amendments say their goal is to combat the spread of defamatory or insulting comments online, which is being encouraged by online anonymity. “Although the goal given by the... MORE
Paris-based press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) is concerned about all the libel actions being brought against Armenian newspapers and the disproportionate damages being demanded, which threaten their survival and create a climate that encourages self-censorship. This tendency to use lawsuits to throttle news media must be reined in. The repeal of jail sentences for libel and slander in April 2010 was hailed as a democratic advance but judicial harassment of the media continues... MORE
Armenia has refused to allow four reporters with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE to enter the country, according to New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Thursday, immigration authorities at the Zvartnots International Airport in the capital, Yerevan, refused to issue visas to the four reporters, and forced them to leave the country, according to local and international press reports. Immigration authorities did not provide an explanation to the... MORE
Nikol Pashinian, an opposition activist and editor-in-chief of the independent Armenia daily Haykakan Zhamanak , was recently beaten in custody and moved into solitary confinement, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. On Tuesday, authorities moved Pashinian into the strict-regime Artik prison. Pashinian's lawyer, Vakhe Grigorian, told CPJ that the move was in retaliation for editorials Pashinian wrote from prison and published in Haykakan Zhamanak . He wrote... MORE
Armenian Parliament has decided against adopting two draft laws that would have banned future broadcasts of foreign media, specifically Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). This step, welcomed by free speech organisations, is said to be a step towards safeguarding media freedom in a democratic setup. A demonstration in Yerevan on July 2. After the voting, an RFE/RL report quoted Victor Dalakian an independent member of parliament and one of the more outspoken critics of the legislation... MORE
