Armenian paper accuses presidential press service of harassment

A1+ web site
21 Apr 04

The editor-in-chief of Ambion [Rostrum], Narine Lazarian, today
issued a statement which said: “The press service of the Armenian
president periodically impedes the work of Ambion newspaper.

“Having learnt about a scheduled meeting between [Armenian President]
Robert Kocharyan and Steven Mann, the new US cochairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group, the newspaper’s correspondent Goar Veziryan called the
presidential press service to ask them to put her name on the list of
reporters covering the meeting. She was not refused. However, later
the correspondent was barred from the presidential residence.

“On 20 April, when the correspondent tried to find out what measures
had been planned, an employee of the presidential press service
shouted on the phone: `Do you have no self-respect?’

“Bearing in mind public demands and the political realities of the
past year, we should ourselves put the same question to Robert
Kocharyan.”