During the third quarter of 2025, there was 1 documented case of physical violence against media representatives, 19 cases of various pressures, and 23 cases of violations of the right to receive and disseminate information.
The main peculiarity of the period under review is that most cases of pressure on media professionals were exerted by representatives of the authorities, including high-ranking officials. The trend of officials publicly targeting media or individual journalists, and subsequently filing lawsuits against them continued. In particular, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his Chief of Staff Arayik Harutyunyan, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Torosyan and others resorted to settling information disputes through court proceedings. Meanwhile, Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan, at his press conference, accused media of corruption and circulating illicit funds, highlighting that he intentionally meant to insult them.
Between July and September, a total of 15 new lawsuits were filed against journalists and media. In 10 of these cases, the plaintiffs were officials, while the remaining 5 were filed by other individuals. All of them are insult and/or defamation cases brought under Article 1087.1 of the RA Civil Code. Notably, while 35 such lawsuits were accepted for proceedings by courts in the 9 months of 2024, the number has already reached 45 for the same period of this year.
All these court cases, along with the various violations of the rights of media representatives, are presented in the relevant sections of the report. Regarding some extraordinary incidents (for example, the violence committed against journalist Hakob Karapetyan), as well as pressing issues in the field, journalistic organizations released statements, while the Information Disputes Council and Media Ethics Observatory issued expert opinions. MEO also appealed to the media to demonstrate maximum responsibility in reporting on events of major public interest for the country, while also urging the authorities to prevent the emergence of any information vacuum that could be filled with false information and narratives misleading the public. This appeal was prompted by the peace document signed on August 8 in Washington by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the United States, a development of critical importance for Armenia and the entire region. Throughout the period under review, this very topic became the main target for political forces and the media associated with them, and was full of disinformation and manipulative comments.
The polarization of the Armenian media environment was recorded by the US Department of State in the Armenia section of its “2024 Country Report on Human Rights Practices,” released on August 12. The report also addresses instances of pressure and violence against media representatives in the context of ongoing political movements in the country.
The situation regarding violations of the right to receive and disseminate information remains troubling: 23 such cases were recorded during the period under review. Of these, 4 inquiries were denied responses without valid grounds, 2 inquiries did not receive any response, in 7 cases, the responses were vague (including one that violated the legally prescribed procedure for responding to inquiries), 9 responses were in violation of the timeframe prescribed by law, and in 1 case, the reply did not correspond to the essence of the inquiries.
According to assurances from the authorities, the package of draft laws “On Cybersecurity,” “On Public Information,” and “On Regulatory Authority for Information Systems” developed by the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, approved by the Government on August 14 and forwarded to Parliament, is aimed at improving the current situation.
Between August 1 to 22, the HTI Ministry also circulated another draft proposing amendments and supplements to the Law “On Audiovisual Media.” Journalistic organizations have disagreements and reservations regarding these drafts, which are presented below.
