THE LEVEL OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH DECLINED IN ARMENIA
Panorama.am
14:36 04/04/06
“In the course of the last 4 years the level of the freedom of speech
has considerably declined,” announced the president of Yerevan
Press Club Boric Navasardyan at the press conference today. As he
said the closing down of “A1+” TV Company was a turning-point for
Armenia. Moreover, in the last 4 days no power or political body was
formed in the country to promote freedom of speech to some extant.
In his turn the manager of the closed down TV Company Mesrop Movsisyan
noticed that Armenian TV Companies couldn’t understand what freedom of
speech really means in general and what it means for the company from
commercial point of view. “TV Companies have to compromise in order
to solve certain commercial problems, yet often times the compromise
is the idea of freedom of speech,” M. Movsisyan mentioned. Talking
about censorship B. Navasardyan mentioned that there is a drop of level
even concerning Russian information-analytical programs, as there is a
hidden censorship as well. As he thinks great hopes are cherished for
the positive judgment of European Court of Human Rights. To remind,
at present the European Court of Human Rights is dealing with the
appeal of “A1+”.