Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
June 30 2006
Armenia: Outrage at Newspaper Editor’s Arrest
Media rights groups say criminal charges against Arman Babajanian are
designed to neutralise a critical voice.
Diana Markosian in Yerevan (CRS No. 346, 30-June-06)
Journalists and media activists in Armenia are lining up in support
of newspaper editor Arman Babajanian, saying the criminal charge for
which he was arrested this week has only been filed because of his
paper’s criticism of the authorities.
Babajanian was detained at the offices of his Zhamanak-Yerevan paper
on June 26, and charged with forging documents four years ago to
allow him to escape army conscription. He is said to have made up a
certificate that fictitiously showed he had two children – a
circumstance which automatically results in exemption from military
service. Forgery carries a punishment of one to five years in prison.
An official report states that Babajanian made a confession in the
presence of a lawyer.
Babajanian was refused bail when he appeared in court on June 28, and
he is likely to spend the next two months in prison pending trial.
Grigorian said the court was wrong not to have taken his position and
his `frank confession’ into account in considering the bail request.
The lawyer now plans to appeal the refusal of bail. `If the court
upholds the decision, this will suggest there’s a political motive
behind what has happened,’ he said.
Babajanian’s colleagues on the paper and in other media have spoken
out in his support, accusing the authorities of prosecuting him
because of his work on Zhamanak-Yerevan.
`I insist that even if there’s some offence, the underlying cause is
the newspaper,’ said the paper’s deputy editor Liza Chagharian.
The newspaper only started publishing in Armenia on May 12 with a
print-run of 1,500, which although small is not unusual in this
country. But it has been going for four years, and continues to be
printed in the United States in Armenian and Russian with a
circulation of 9,000. Over that period, Zhamanak-Yerevan has carried
many critical articles about the government, although it has also
been hard on the opposition at times.
`The authorities dislike Zhamanak Yerevan, which is why orders were
issued to destroy it,’ Avetiq Ishkhanian, the chairman of Armenia’s
Helsinki Committee, told IWPR. `The law enforcement bodies took on
the task of devising a way to carry these orders out.’
The National Press Club released a statement describing Babajanian’s
arrest as a breach the constitutional right to freedom of speech, and
an attempt to force the media into a strait-jacket ahead of
elections.
The Yerevan Press Club and the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech
wrote to the prosecutor general claiming that initial questioning of
Babajanian had been conducted improperly.
On June 27, a group of journalists, human rights campaigners and
opposition supporters held a rally outside the prosecution service’s
headquarters in Yerevan.
One of the participants, journalist Mesrop Harutiunian said dragging
a man off to the prosecutor’s office without giving him advance
notice or informing him of his rights was how the law worked in a
police state. `An army sergeant style of rule is being established in
Armenia,’ he said.
Human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanian believes Babajanian’s
detention is part of a wider campaign to bring the independent media
to heel.
`I don’t know whether the authorities will succeed to do this, but
I’m sure they won’t,’ he said. `But if they do succeed, they may turn
their hand to other newspapers, too.’
A recent report by the international media watchdog Freedom House
rates the press in Armenia as `not free’.
The media have repeatedly come under pressure in recent years. The
independent TV-channel À1+ was stripped of its license in 2002 and
has failed to win back its broadcasting rights ever since. This year
it was evicted from its premises.
There have also been a number of physical attacks on journalists,
including assaults last year on Anna Israelian of the Aravot
newspaper, Naira Mamikonian of Haikakan Zhamanak, and Diana
Markosian, the author of this article.
Armenia’s new human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, has so far
avoided any comment on the possible political ramifications of the
Babajanian case. `We will look at his crime [sic] to see whether the
draft evasion can be proved as a legal fact or not,’ he said. `Only
then will we be able to draw conclusions.’
Diana Markosian is a journalist with the À1+ television company.