LOS ANGELES TIMES MANAGING EDITOR BLOCKS ARTICLE ON SO CALLED ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 1 2007

A publication of article on so called "Armenian genocide" erupted
scandal over the issue. Los Angeles Times managing editor Doug Frantz
blocked the publication of an article on the Armenian genocide
by senior staff writer Mark Arax, who is of Armenian origin, APA
US bureau reports. Frantz said Arax is biased on Armenian issues
expressing personal views about the topic in a public manner and
therefore was not a disinterested party.

Frantz said late in 2005 four Los Angels Times’ contributors of
Armenian descent sent a letter to the chief editor of the paper
demanding the events of 1915-1923 to be presented as genocide in the
papers editing policy. He also told Arax that he "went around [the]
system" in a bid to land the story assignment, by dealing with an
editor in the Times Washington bureau, Robert Ourlian, who is Armenian
American. That is why Doug Frantz reassigned the story to Washington
writer Rich Simon. The revised Times article ran under the headline,
"Genocide Resolution Still Far From Certain" on Saturday, April 21,
four days before Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in L.A. Arax was
given a consolation tagline at the end of the article for having
"contributed" some reporting.

In protest against Mark Arax sent a written application to Jim O’Shea,
the top editor of the Los Angeles Times presenting himself the victim
of national discrimination.