In February, notably in the course of the past week a number of media outlets received a notice from Yerevan Municipality on vacating the premises allocated to them on the basis of free lease agreements. Moreover, they were mostly given a 5-day period for doing this. Such abrupt and rush actions cannot be justified by the need for more effective use of the community premises.
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STATEMENT
February 4, 2019
February 4, 2019, Yerevan On Saturday, February 2, 2019, the journalists accredited by the National Assembly were not allowed into the building of the parliament where an in-camera session of the ‘My Step’ faction with the participation of the Prime Minister and several high-ranking officials from the executive was proceeding. The media representatives demanded for […]
STATEMENT
February 1, 2019
On January 31, the Government made a decision to liquidate Gyumri “Shirak public TV-radio” closed joint-stock company. The reasoning is as follows: since October 26, 2016, Armenia passed on to digital broadcasting, and so far “Shirak public TV-radio” has been operating in analogue mode and is not able to ensure aide audience, whereas “to conduct digital broadcasting first of all respective legislative regulation is required and significant financial investment, which is unrealistic at this moment.”
STATEMENT
January 8, 2019
The TV and Radio commission announced the failure of a private multiplexor for a 6-month licensing license to operate on the last working day of the last year. The basis for this decision was the fact that during the defined period no application was received. This is the third tender without results, which is announced failed with the same reasoning.
STATEMENT
December 21, 2018
On 19 December, the Television and Radio Commission made a statement expressing
concerns about certain phenomena in the TV programmes “Epikentron” and
“Andradarz” aired by Kentron TV. In particular, TVRC was concerned that rather than
fulfilling its obligation to ensure plurality of public interests, imparting ideas and opinions,
as well as freely circulating objective information, the mass media outlet targeted one of
the political forces, resorting to ‘the rich weaponry of propaganda and manipulation’
against it. According to the TVRC, the aforesaid practices undermine the very essence
of editorial independence revealing “the interference and direction of one political force
and the leader thereof”. Therefore, the Commission called on Kentron TV not to become
a platform for the propaganda of one political party.
STATEMENT
December 10, 2018
We, the undersigned media organizations, state that the snap parliamentary elections held in Armenia on December 9, 2018, qualitatively differed from all the previous ones in terms of favorable conditions for journalists and the media outlets and for their operation without restraint. On the actual election day, no serious case of physical violence or impeding the professional activity of a journalist was recorded; the few slight incidents were settled immediately. This is an unprecedented thing, which should be made a tradition.
STATEMENT
September 24, 2018
On September 23, on the day of extraordinary elections to Yerevan City Council, at the polling station 8/05, Norik Yeranyan, chairperson of the district commission, hit Ani Davtyan’s hand, journalist from “1in.am” news site telling her “take your microphone aside”. In an interview with the CPFE the journalist informed that besides that one of the persons escorting Arthur Manoukyan, parliamentarian from PAP, pulled the cameraman by the shoulder and disturbed the videotaping. We express hope and demand that the law-enforcement bodies will investigate the incident in detail and charge those to blame.
STATEMENT
September 20, 2018
Three days have passed after the search conducted on September 17 at the editorial of the “Yerevan.today” news website, however the law enforcement bodies have not introduced any substantiations about the need for those rough actions.
Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression Chair Ashot Melikyan response to the Facebook posting by RPA Vice-Chair Armen Ashotyan
June 19, 2018
Today RPA Vice-Chair Armen Ashotyan wrote on his Facebook page that he is expecting the assessment by media organizations, institutions dealing with the freedom expression and press and certain human rights defenders of the Facebook posting by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. We should remind that in relation to certain TV Companies, the Prime Minister said they are conducting anti-state campaign, “taking the opportunity of the unlimited freedom of expression.” “Do not do that, simply don’t”, said the Prime Minister in the end.
Truly interesting transformations are taking place. When Armen Ashotyan, being the Vice-Chair of the ruling RPA party, was running the “Yerankyuni” (triangle) public-political program over the Public TV Company, and both the experts from media organizations and me personally were saying that it is unacceptable, our opinion was of no value to him. When we were saying that the Armenian broadcasting field and the “Law on TV and Radio” needs radical reforms, they were ignoring us. When we were demanding to discover and punish those who used violence against and persecuted the journalists during “Electric Yerevan” and Sari Tagh events, the authorities only imitated pre-investigation. And now, our opinion became important to Armen Ashotyan. Frankly speaking, here two intentions are noticed. First, try to use independent media organizations for some political objectives; second, to deviate the public attention as much as possible from much more important events that are taking place currently. I guess both will fail.
STATEMENT
May 10, 2018
We, the undersigned news organizations, congratulate Nikol Pashinyan on the occasion of being elected as the RA Prime Minister and taking the office, and we express our hope that the new government will make radical reforms in Armenia.
We are sure, that such reforms are needed in the fields of mass media and information freedom. A number of legislative changes passed during the recent period groundlessly restrict transparency and accountability of the government activity, and violate the right to receive and disseminate information.