FREEDOM HOUSE DOESN’T SPECIFY EXACTLY WHICH ELECTIONS WERE VIOLATED IN ARMENIA
By Aghavni Haroutiunian
AZG Armenian Daily
16/06/2007
"The falsifications in the elections contributed to deepening of the
atmosphere of cynicism and distrust to the authorities and to their
right to participate in the elections. Moreover, the society lost its
faith in applying anti-corruption methods for displaying the political
will of the authorities," the report of the Freedom House Human Rights
Organization stretched about this. Radio Liberty informed about this.
According to the report, certain regress was fixed in Armenia in
the spheres of democratic developments, free press and management
indicators, while the indicators for the electoral procedures, civil
society and corruption remained unchanged. At the same time, according
to the report, the general indicator for Armenia suffered regress.
It is stated in the report that the lack of the effective mamanegemtn
system caused large -scale corruption. The close relations between the
economic and political elite of the country hinder the establishment
of transparent state democratic institutions.
As for the freedom of the printed press, the report stated that in
2006 the issue of formation of the TV and Radio National Committee
was largely discussed in Armenia. The mass media sources often get
engaged in lobbying the regulation for formation of the TV and Radio
National Committee and the procedures for licensing the local TV
companies. Though the journalistic circles managed to gain certain
progress in influencing the governmental policy on the journalism,
the cases of violences against the journalists annihilate all positive
achievements.
According to the Freedom House report, Armenia occupies the 137 place
in the world in the aspect of the freedom of mass media sources. This
is already the fourth year that the Armenian mass media sources are
evaluated as "non-free."