DESPITE PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENTS ABOUT "OPEN WORK" OF GOVERNMENT,
REPORTERS COVERING ACTIVITIES OF EXECUTIVE BODY MEET NEW OBSTACLES

YEREVAN, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Despite the assurances of the newly
elected prime minister Tigran Sargsian that the government should work
openly and transparently, while reporters should act freely, the latter
ones’ opportunity to work is increasingly being restricted. It turns
out that the reporters accredited to the government to follow its
sittings (by live broadcast, in a room allocated to reporters) have to
be in the building at 11 am – from the beginning of a sitting, and even
in case of arriving 5 minutes late, they are deprived of the right to
cover the sitting that sometimes lasts several hours.

The fact of being specially accredited to cover government sittings is
of no importance: the guards of the building allow to enter only those
on the lists of the given day. In addition, different lists are
required for coverage of sittings and briefings.

NT correspondent, who is accredited to the government and did not take
part in the live broadcast of the May 8 sitting, along with several
other reporters was not allowed to attend the briefing following the
sitting as, according to the security guards, "there was not yet" a
list of reporters permitted to briefings.

Thus, on the one hand, reporters are given the opportunity to follow
government sittings on the spot by watching a live broadcast, but on
the other hand, there is a strict time and "list" restriction, which in
its turn limits reporters’ freedom. Unlike these reporters, those
accredited to cover National Assembly sittings (by the way, not in a
separate room but immediately in the hall of sittings) are free -in
terms of time – to enter NA building.