NUMBER OF PRESS FOES INCREASES

A1plus

| 18:16:53 | 03-05-2005 | Politics |

In 2005 the press foe is the state system. This is the resolution
of the National Press Club announces at the ceremony of conferring
the title of the foe of press. The action was started in 2002, when
Robert Kocharyan was bestowed with the title for launching struggle
against freedom of speech.

In 2003 the title was conferred to NA deputy Hranush Hakobyan for
spreading misinformation (on the allegedly positive estimation of
the Venice Commission) before the vote on the law “On Mass Media”

The title is conferred with 50%+1 vote. This year no one overcame this
barrier, however Assistant to Armenian President Armen Gevorkyan was
an obvious leader for his attempts to control e-media. Armen Gevorkyan
was followed by governor of Syunik Suren Khachatryan for consistent
struggle against fredom of speech, Gagik Tsaturyan for stirring
skinheads against the free speech and the «three-head» coalition.

To note, those, who received the title earlier are not deprived of
it. “We just did not want to include the names that have already been
mentioned before”, representatives of the NPC say. We consider that
the press foes are Robert Kocharyan, Grigor Amalyan and deputy chief
of the RA Police Hovhannes Varyan”, NPC member Vardan Vardanyan says.

The NPC statement says in part, “The authorities carry on consistent
struggle against freedom of speech. It refers to the media not
controlled by them.”

–Boundary_(ID_/kHfJX8tQZwMj45uFXKWrw)–