Institute for War and Peace Reporting IWPR
May 22 2009
ARMENIA: JOURNALISTS DEFIANT AFTER NEW ATTACKS
Recent attacks on journalists underline media’s struggle to report
freely on politics and business.
By Gayane Mkrtchian in Yerevan
Armenian rights activists fear two attacks on prominent journalists in
the last three weeks could be a sign of new attempts to restrict
freedom of information in their country.
Argishti Kivirian, editor-in-chief of the news agencies Armenia Today
and Bagin.info, was attacked in the stairwell of his house on April
30, only just managing to force his assailants’ gun into the air
before three shots were fired.
Just a week later, Nver Mnatsakanian, a political commentator from the
Shant television channel, was also beaten as he walked into the block
of flats were he lived.
These two high-profile attacks are added to a list of 18 other
assaults on journalists compiled last year by human rights activists,
which paint a picture of a country where the press struggles to report
freely on politics and business.
`If the criminals are punished on time then maybe we can avoid this
atmosphere of impunity, which we have at the moment. There are cases
which are so close to being solved, and then unexpectedly they reach a
dead end,’ said Avetik Ishkhanian, the head of the Armenian Helsinki
Commission.
The attack on Kivirian was clearly well-planned, according to evidence
from his wife Lusine Sahakian, a lawyer who has worked defending
opposition figures.
`It was five o’clock in the morning, when I heard a noise coming from
the ground floor. We opened the day and ran down by the stairs,
shouting his name `Argishti, Argishti’. I knew that he had been
threatened,’ she said. As she reached the first floor, she said she
heard three shots.
`My husband says that he heard the noise of steps coming closer, and
then one of the attackers said `kill him’. Argishti managed to push
the pistol upwards, and it fired into the air.’
Kivirian’s two news agencies have no relation to the authorities, and
they have recently been very active in covering problems in southern
Georgia, which has a large Armenian minority that can cause friction
between the two neighbouring countries. The news agencies promised
that the attack would not halt their work.
`We can assure you that Armenia Today and Bagun.info will continue to
uncover serious themes and will not stop raising current
problems. Attempts to make us be quiet are pointless,’ the agencies
said in a joint statement.
Just a week later, on May 7, unknown men attacked Mnatsakanian. Such
an assault, on a well-known figure in the country, shocked many
Armenians. Mnatsakanian, who has no connection to the opposition,
himself struggled to give an explanation for what had happened.
`I can say nothing. You could connect it to anything in our
activities. I have never had and do not have any connection to
business or to anything,’ he told Radio Liberty.
In a news conference the next day, Colonel Hovhannes Tamanian, of the
Armenian police, said all steps would be taken to solve the two
crimes. `Crimes against journalists defame the great work that we do
elsewhere. We will do all that we can to solve these crimes. I ask you
to trust me and to believe that we will take all steps to prevent such
things happening again,’ he said.
His criticism of the attacks was repeated by Armenian prime minister
Tigran Sargsian who strongly condemned such violence on May 13.
`And sadly, violence is not only used against journalists. These
circumstances can create serious danger. Therefore, we are organising
discussions about possible additional measures and reforms, which
could deal with this negative tendency,’ he said.
Tamanian’s figures for assaults on journalists are very different to
those published by rights activists. He said there have been only 17
attacks since 1992, and of these three had been solved. But activists
say even this minute figure is exaggerated.
One of the cases listed as solved was the attack last year on Edik
Baghdasarian, the chairman of the Investigative Journalists
Organisation, and editor-in-chief of the website hetq.am.
He was badly beaten on November 17, 2008, when three unknown men
attacked him near his office without warning or explanation. He
resisted them until he was smashed over the head with a rock. His
attackers took an expensive television camera, and he only managed to
gain help when he crawled to a nearby building.
`If Tamanian thinks that my case is solved, then he either understands
nothing of jurisprudence, or has absolutely no conception of it. They
arrested some person, who refuses to give evidence, and is probably
being quiet by orders coming from above. Anyway, he is quiet, and he
has a perfect right to this. That makes it a lot easier to hide the
name of the person who ordered the attack,’ said Baghdasarian.
And human rights groups accuse the authorities of taking the assault
on Kivirian with a similar lack of seriousness. Prosecutors initially
viewed it as a minor assault, and only upgraded it to a probe into
attempted murder after three weeks.
Gagik Shamshian, a photographer who reached the scene of the attack
just half an hour after it happened, has a series of photographs that
clearly show the brass cartridge cases expelled by the pistol used in
the assault.
Kivirian’s wife is also baffled by how the police, who must have seen
the cartridge cases, took so long to classify the case as attempted
murder.
`What happened to the cartridges from the bullets? How could they say
that they heard no shots, and that the victim did not see a pistol
himself,’ she asked.
The contradictions between the official accounts and that of the
victims in these attacks have concerned international
observers. Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, the head of the office of the
Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, was harsh in his
criticism.
`The recent repeated cases of violent assault against media
professionals have marred the current media freedom situation in
Armenia,’ he said.
`The lack of results in cases of violence against journalists creates
an atmosphere of impunity for the perpetrators and can provoke other
cases of violence against media workers.’
In the meantime, Kivirian and his wife are planning to put in a
request for the right to carry a gun.
`We live in a country in which we cannot feel ourselves protected,
therefore we are forced to count only on self-defence. Let’s see if in
this country only oligarchs and criminals are allowed to carry
weapons, and whether decent people are also given this right,’ said
Sahakian.
Gayane Mkrtchian is a journalist with Armenianow.com.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
