DO THEY DEFEND MPS AGAINST JOURNALISTS?

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9/08/24/national-assembly
07:52 pm | August 24, 2009

Politics

The new order of journalists’ accreditation in the Armenian Parliament
has been put into effect since August 24.

Three days ago Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan
passed the new order which immediately aroused deep resonance among
journalists as it somehow limits journalists’ rights.

Under the new order, an accredited journalist cannot have access to
the National Assembly at any moment. An accredited newspaper must
have at least 1500 readers and an Internet website 800 visitors.

"Not all newspapers can be accredited," said the spokesperson of the
National Assembly, Nairi Petrosyan.

They aim to apply various tools to know the circulation of Internet
media. For instance, they will use the information of Google Analytics.

Nairi Petrosyan says that the new order stems from the new law on
mass media, adopted on February 8, 2004.

Up to nowadays, the National Assembly has been guided by the
accreditation order of 1999.

The NA spokesman and Arpine Hovhannisyan, Advisor to the NA Speaker on
legal affairs, tried their best to convince the discontent journalists
of the need for the new order and its advantages.

Under the new order "an accredited journalist can step into the
National Assembly during NA sittings, briefings, parliamentary
hearings, press conferences and other events preliminary agreed upon
with the Information Department."

Nairi Petrosyan says there is not restriction in this point as
"a journalist shouldn’t spend all his/her time in the National
Assembly. This is common in all European countries".

Nairi Petrosyan says a journalist can meet an MP only after arranging
a meeting with him.