2008 WAS UNPRECEDENTED FOR THE MASS MEDIA

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[05:16 pm] 24 February, 2009

The year 2008 was unprecedented not only by the number of violations
of rights of journalists and mass media outlets, but also censure of
mass media. This is the conclusion made by the Committee for Defense
of Freedom of Speech in its annual report.

In addition, according to the report, 2008 was a year of ordeal for
Armenian presses due to the presidential elections.

"As a rule, assaults against freedom of mass media begin when the
domestic political situation intensifies. But 2008 was unprecedented
with regards to censorship and the number of assaults," said Head
of the Committee for Defense of Freedom of Speech Ashot Melkonyan as
he presented the committee’s annual report. He stated that they had
drawn comparisons with the 2003 presidential elections while preparing
the report.

"Based on evaluations given by news organizations, the extremely
subjective coverage of television networks of the 2008 pre-election
events and the process, as well as the political processes following
the elections were the direct result of the pressures of the
authorities on the mass media outlets," said Melkonyan.

According to expert of the Committee for Defense of Freedom of Speech
Mesrop Harutyunyan, there were pressures and bans in 2003 as well,
but they exceeded in 2008. He even brought up examples of pressures
and impediments in 2003 and 2008.

"In addition to that, we set aside censorship because there was no
such thing in 2003 or the past 17 years. Censorship is prohibited by
RA law. An emergency rule was declared in Yerevan for 20 days from
March 1, but there is not one word about censorship in the president’s
decree. This was a terrible blow to the Armenian presses and took us
back to Soviet times," says Mesrop Harutyunyan.

The report features violations against journalists divided into three
groups-physical abuses, pressures against mass media and violations
of the right to receive and disperse information.