FIRE TARGETED REGIONAL TV STATION’S TRANSMITTER
Haykakan Zhamanak
April 8 2008
Armenia
The head of the Asparez journalists’ club, Levon Barseghyan, has
said that at around 0500 [0000 gmt] on 7 April fire started inside
the old TV tower of the town of Gyumri [northern Armenia] where Gala
TV’s transmitter islocated.
However, fire had not occurred on its own, and the fire brigade which
arrived at the scene of the incident discovereda burning tyre. The
fire-fighters managed to put out fire, and only by chance it didn’t
reach the cables of Gala TVand aerials of several Internet providers
located in 1-1.5 metre distance.
This case has been the latest in the series of similar events related
to Gala TV and the Asparez journalists’club (as early as two weeks ago
unidentified individuals set on fire the car of the head of the Asparez
club). Thestatement by Levon Barseghyan disseminated yesterday with
regard to the tower arson attack, in particular, read:"The headquarters
of the [organization for] protection of freedom of speech and Gala
TV Company presume that thecause of this fire will be disclosed and
individuals [behind it] will be punished as it was the case with the
arsonattacks on the office of the Asparez journalists’ club NGO and
the car of the head of the club.
"We doubt that the Gyumri city council, which is so worried about
the TV tower having the aerial of Gala TV,will make similar fuss
about finding and punishing the beasts responsible for damaging
communal property. And it’s high time that the people who have
ordered these or other arson attacks reconsider having these incapable
perpetratorswhose activities testify to the fact they are simply doing
what they have been assigned and do not absolutely care aboutdoing
their job efficiently. It is a shame that we have arsons as well as
bad perpetrators in our city."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
