SOME JOURNALISTIC AND PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS OF ARMENIA “SURPRISED” WITH
RESOLUTION OF THE EXPERTS OF CE VENICE COMMISSION
YEREVAN, JULY 27. ARMINFO. A number of journalistic and public
organizations of Armenia “are surprised” with resolution of the
experts of CE Venice Commission on the package of constitutional
reforms in Armenia. Representative of a public organization
“Democracy” Vardan Poghosyan said at a seminar “Freedom of Speech and
Constitutional Reforms.”
They are surprised with the circumstance that yet before July 7,
before the elaborated package was submitted to the CE Venice
Commission, public and journalistic organizations proposed to create
several bodies regulating e-Mass Media and not a single body it was
proposed in the package. They proposed the government to appoint these
bodies. However, the above experts proposed to leave unchanged the
point of creation of a singe body as well as that part of its
participants is appointed by the president and second part by the
parliament, on the example of the Constitutional Court of Armenia. The
resolution of the experts does not propose inclusion of a point
banning any censorship in the package of reforms. They expressed
confidence that the proposals of CE experts do not provide strong
guarantees of freedom of speech in the country and urge the Armenian
Parliament either to accept the proposals of Armenian organizations
interested or to elaborate proposals providing real freedom of speech,
Poghosyan says. He thinks the package of constitutional reforms to be
submitted for the second reading of the parliament an obvious but not
enough process, as it still need elaboration.
In her turn, Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Permanent Commission for
Science, Culture and Youth Affairs Hrahuysh Hakobyan opposed Poghosyan
stating that already adopted laws on freedom of speech and on the
activity of Mass Media were the major guarantees of freedom of speech
in Armenia. As regards the aforementioned point in the package of
constitutional reforms, she stated that just this body would secure
freedom of speech in the country. “The concern of Yerevan Press Club
and other organizations is clear, but one should make a broader sight
on things and not to compare what is proposed to what was earlier. At
last, the package of reforms has undergone 34 changes, and we shall
made as many ones as it is necessary to achieve a compromise,” she
said.