COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS PUBLISHES ITS REPORT ON ARMENIA

ArmInfo
2010-02-17 16:58:00

ArmInfo. The international non-governmental organization Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has published a report "Attacks on the
Press 2009: Armenia" for 2009.

The authors of the research qualify the top developments in Armenia as
"Broadcast media controlled by government or its allies" and "Numerous
assaults reported, but police do little".

The report stresses that "the nation remained polarized by the
fraud-marred 2008 presidential election won by Serzh Sargsyan, with
large public protests and violent government reprisals continuing
well into 2009. The global economic crisis caused layoffs in the
mining industry and a decline in remittances from Russia, heightening
public frustrations. The government sought to suppress critical debate
over these issues, and journalists faced intolerance, hostility,
and violence". According to the CPJ data, the government maintained
control over most broadcast media, the primary news source in a
poverty-afflicted country with poor newspaper distribution and low
Internet penetration. Most private radio and television stations were
owned by politicians and businessmen with close ties to the government,
leading to significant self-censorship by journalists and limited
critical news reporting on the airwaves, CPJ research showed.

"One independent news outlet remained off the air. In February, a
Yerevan appellate court dismissed lawsuits filed by the media outlet
A1+ that sought reconsideration of its broadcast license applications.

The station, pulled from the airwaves in 2002 in reprisal for its
critical news reports, has seen a dozen license applications rejected
by the government’s broadcast regulator. (A1+ has continued operating
as an independent online news agency.) The Strasbourg-based European
Court of Human Rights ruled in 2008 that the regulator violated
the European Convention on Human Rights by repeatedly rejecting the
applications without explanation",- says the report. The Committee to
Protect Journalists reports that violent attacks against journalists
continued amid a climate of impunity.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress