Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Attacks on the Press in 2004
ARMENIA
The Armenian government failed to protect journalists during violent
demonstrations in April against President Robert Kocharian. In some
cases, authorities were directly involved in attacks on the press.
On April 5, police stood by during an opposition rally while two dozen
men attacked several journalists and cameramen. A Yerevan court
convicted two men of the attack, fining them 100,000 drams (US$182) each
for “deliberately damaging property,” the journalists’ cameras. Some
victims and the opposition media claimed that the trial was merely a
government attempt to create the appearance of accountability, the U.S.
government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
During another opposition rally the next week, police destroyed the
cameras of journalists from the Russian TV station Channel One and the
daily Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time). At least four journalists were
injured when police officers used batons, stun grenades, and water jets
to disperse several thousand demonstrators.
The impunity surrounding these attacks made journalists more vulnerable.
In August, Mkhitar Khachatryan, a photojournalist with Fotolur news
agency who was reporting on environmentally damaging housing
construction in central Armenia, was beaten by an unidentified man who
threatened him with death and forced him to hand over his photos.
Khachatryan had been taking photos near the mansion of a former police
chief.
Although a private citizen was sentenced in October to six months in
prison for the assault, a security guard for the police chief who
reportedly ordered the attack was neither detained nor charged, the
Yerevan-based Association of Investigative Journalists in Armenia reported.
Television coverage of the spring opposition rallies and other
politically sensitive issues favored Kocharian, who ensured that TV
stations remained in the hands of government supporters or those who
would not criticize his policies. For the second year in a row,
politicized media regulators kept A1+, an independent and influential TV
station that has sharply criticized government policies, off the air.
The National Council on Television and Radio-a government body that
regulates broadcasting frequencies and is stacked with Kocharian
supporters-shuttered A1+ in April 2002 and has since rejected eight
applications from the station for a broadcasting license.
Broadcasting authorities also kept local television channels that were
moderately independent-such as Yerevan station Noyan Tapan, which was
also shuttered in April 2002-off the air. No new frequency tenders are
planned until 2009.
Unlike television, the print media enjoy greater autonomy from
government control, but most publications are controlled by political
parties and wealthy businessmen, compromising their editorial
independence and professional standards. According to the U.S.-based
media training organization IREX ProMedia, low salaries encourage
widespread corruption among reporters.
Journalists also faced declining legal protection, with the government
continuing to ignore calls from press freedom organizations, the Council
of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
to repeal criminal defamation and insult laws added to the Criminal Code
in April 2003. The statutes threaten journalists with up to three years
in prison and have increased self-censorship, according to IREX.
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