ARMENIAN MEDIA BAN STILL IN FORCE

Radio Liberty
March 14 2008
Czech Republic

Armenia’s leading newspapers critical of the government were unable to
resume publication on Friday despite a softening of the controversial
government ban on independent news reporting announced by President
Robert Kocharian.

The Armenian authorities also failed to unblock access to the websites
of RFE/RL’s Armenian service and local online news services.

Under the 20-day state of emergency declared by Kocharian on March 1,
the Armenian media could only cite the government and law-enforcement
bodies when covering national politics. More than a dozen independent
and opposition publications suspended or were forced to suspend their
operations as a result. In a decree signed on Thursday, Kocharian said
they can resume their work so long as they do not publish "obviously
false or destabilizing information."

The editors of seven newspapers affected by the severe restrictions
said censors from the National Security Service (NSS), the Armenian
successor to the Soviet KGB, ordered the printers not to publish
their Friday editions after examining their content. Only one of the
papers, "Aravot," was said to have been given an explanation of the
publication ban.

"There was a KGB censor at the Tigran Mets printing company who locked
himself in a room and made phone calls to his superiors," the "Aravot"
editor, Aram Abrahamian, told RFE/RL. "He then told my deputy that
[a newspaper article about opposition leader] Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
news conference contains obviously false information and that the
newspaper can therefore not be printed."

"I suppose the authorities did not want to see balanced information
containing their views along with those of the opposition," said
Abrahamian. "They want to make sure that only their opinion, their
version of events is made public."

"Nothing has changed. NSS employees continue to sit at printing
shops and check the newspaper content," agreed Hayk Gevorgian, acting
editor of "Haykakan Zhamanak," Armenia’s best-selling daily staunchly
supportive of Ter-Petrosian.

Local online publications not controlled by the government are
similarly unable to resume their work. Haykazn Ghahriyan, editor
of Lragir.am, said Internet service providers told him that the NSS
has not yet allowed them to revise the list of news websites blocked
following the imposition of emergency rule.

The chief executive of Armenia’s largest Internet firm, Arminco,
confirmed this. "I am looking for [NSS] officials with whom I can
discuss the problem," Andranik Aleksanian told RFE/RL. "Maybe they
just forgot to drop the restrictions."

An NSS spokesman refused to comment on the situation, referring
all inquiries to Kocharian’s press service. Victor Soghomonian, the
presidential press secretary, confirmed that the former KGB is tasked
with enforcing the media restrictions. He suggested that the newspapers
in questions were prevented from publishing because they violated
conditions spelled out in the presidential decree. It was signed by
Kocharian amid mounting international pressure on Armenian government
to lift the state of emergency and the resulting restrictions.

In a joint statement, the seven newspapers and three online
publications brushed aside Kocharian’s decree as a "wretched attempt
to mislead the international community and the Armenian public."

"With such provincial tricks, it is impossible to create a semblance of
democracy and thereby counter authoritative international structures’
legitimate demands to ensure freedom of speech and end illegal
restrictions and bans," they said. "We regard the actions of the
Armenian authorities, ostensibly aimed at restoring internal stability,
as an attempt to maintain dictatorship."

In a Thursday interview with RFE/RL, Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian
admitted that the notion of "obviously false information" can be
open to "differing interpretations." Still, he came up with his own
explanation of the term not defined by Armenian law. "It is when you
have clear-cut official information from several sources, know what
a particular fact is, but then get different information which is
not only unconfirmed but does not correspond to the existing facts
in any way," he said.