FREEDOM HOUSE TO WATCH FORTHCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION CAMPAIGN AND AUTHORITIES’ POLICY TOWARDS JOURNALISTS

Noyan Tapan
Jan 18 2007

NEW YORK, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia has appeared in the group of
"partly free" countries in the annual report of Freedom House human
rights organization published in New York. Chris Walker, Freedom
House Director on Studies, said in his interview to radio Liberty
that Armenia is one of the weakest states of this group.

"Armenia has come up closely to the border that divides "partly free"
and "not free" countries. This is reflection of weak indices in a
number of important spheres. Among these spheres are the situation in
press, or citizens’ possibility to take part in political processes,"
Chris Walker said.

According to Freedom House, in countries included in the group of
"partly free" states civil freedoms and political human rights are
not provided completely. Besides, in countries of this group there is
often atmosphere of corruption, one force dominates on the background
of formal pluralism, attributes peculiar of legal state are weak.

Among tendencies giving rise to anxiety, registered lately in
Armenia Chris Walker especially mentioned activization of oligarches:
"We notice a tendency on the threshold of 2007 elections that we can
characterize as oligarchization of politics, which cannot be estimated
as especially positive step."

In his words, Freedom House will attentively watch the forthcoming
parliamentary election campaign.

"In case of Armenia there were serious problems during all recent
votings, including the referendum held in 2005 November. Many observers
estimate the forthcoming elections as decisive and pivotal. Indeed,
this is a very important chance given to the authorities in the
respect of holding free, fair and transparent elections. And this
does not regard only the day of elections. It is very important that
during the months preceding the elections the authorities create
all necessary conditions for holding of free and fair elections,"
Chris Walker mentioned.

In his words, on the eve of the forthcoming elections Freedom House
will also watch the policy of authorities towards the journalists.

"In the recent period we register growth of attacks upon journalists,
which is a very serious development. I think it is very important that
in the coming months the journalists have a possibility to cover the
events taking place in the country without being afraid of physical
or other kind of retribution or intimidation. This is an issue we
will watch attentively in the coming months," Chris Walker said.

As regards Armenia’s neighbors, Georgia and Turkey were also recognized
"partly free" states by Freedom House. But in difference to Armenia,
these two countries, in the human rights activists’ words, have taken
a step ahead first of all in the respect of organization of electoral
processes. According to Freedom House, both Turkey and Georgia are
on the list of "electoral democracies" today.

The situation is much sadder in Azerbaijan, which is among "not free"
states. As Freedom House experts affirmed, Azerbaijan has regress in
the respect of freedom of media and President Ilham Aliyev’s pressures
upon media become stronger.

Iran and Russia were also numbered among "not free" states. And the
rearguards of the list published by Freedom House are the same –
North Korea, Cuba, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.