YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 29 – FEBRUARY 4, 2010
HIGHLIGHTS:
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: HISTORY AND PUBLIC
HEARINGS ON THE SUIT OF "ARAVOT" DAILY VERSUS GOVERNOR OF SHIRAK REGION
STARTED
PACE CALLS ON ARMENIA TO IMPLEMENT THE JUDGMENT OF EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN
RIGHTS ON THE CASE OF "A1+"
"PRESS CLUB" CYCLE: HISTORY AND PUBLIC
On February 2, another "Press Club" show went on the air of "Yerkir Media"
TV company. The cycle is produced under Yerevan Press Club project,
supported by the Open Society Institute. The guests of the program host, YPC
President Boris Navasardian were Nvard Manasian, professor of Yerevan State
Linguistic University, and prosaist, scriptwriter Vahram Martirosian. The
discussion centered on the influence of historical events’ interpretation on
public process.
The next "Press Club" show will be aired on "Yerkir Media" on February 9, at
21.15.
HEARINGS ON THE SUIT OF "ARAVOT" DAILY VERSUS GOVERNOR OF SHIRAK REGION
STARTED
On January 29 in Gyumri RA Administrative Court started to hear the case on
the suit of the founder of "Aravot" daily, "Aravot Oratert" LLC, versus Lida
Nanian, Governor of Shirak region. The plaintiff demands to hold the
inaction of the Governor, who did not provide information on expenditure of
budgetary funds. The plaintiff’s representative at court is the Freedom of
Information Center.
On August 19, 2009 "Aravot" daily e-mailed all Armenian Governors requesting
on how the subsidiary funds of 70 million AMD (about $ 185,000), allocated
from the state budget in 2005-2009 to each region, are expended. Only the
Governors of Shirak and Lori regions did not answer to the request,
therefore, the founder of "Aravot" filed a suit with the assistance of FOI
Center.
At the session of January 29 the defender’s representative contended that
the inquiry was not received, as the e-mail address of the regional
administration is out of use for over a year. With this regard the plaintiff
made petitions to verify the e-mail addresses of "Aravot", from which the
requests to Governors were sent, and of Shirak region administration. Both
of the petitions were secured. The next session will take place on February
18.
PACE CALLS ON ARMENIA TO IMPLEMENT THE JUDGMENT OF EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN
RIGHTS ON THE CASE OF "A1+"
On January 27 at the plenary winter session of Parliamentary Assembly of
Council of Europe Recommendation 1897(2010), "Respect for Media Freedom",
was approved. Thus, Subpoint 11.5 of the Recommendation calls all the CoE
member states, particularly, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus, "to ensure fair and equal access of all political parties and
candidates to the media before elections and pay particular attention to
this issue when assessing future elections". In Subpoint 11.7 PACE urges the
RA Government to revise the amendments to the RA Law "On Television and
Radio" (September 10, 2008), suspending the broadcast licensing competitions
until July 2010. The Recommendation notes that these amendments were "passed
as a countermeasure to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights"
on the case of "A1+" TV company of June 17, 2008.
Several provisions of the Explanatory Memorandum of the "Respect for Media
Freedom" report, presented on the session of PACE Committee on Culture,
Science and Education on January 6, 2010 (rapporteur – Andrew McIntosh),
also regard the situation with Armenian media. Thus, the rapporteur
emphasizes that "harassment of journalists and direct controls on the media
intensified around the time of the February 2008 presidential election", a
number of journalists suffered assaults during the protest actions after the
elections. As examples of attacks on journalists, the Memorandum cites the
incidents with Hrach Melkumian, Acting Director of the Yerevan Bureau of the
Armenian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (August 18, 2008), Edik
Baghdasarian, Head of "Investigative Journalists" NGO (November 17, 2008),
and Argishti Kivirian, Coordinator of ARMENIA Today news agency (April 30,
2009). During the 20 days long state of emergency, declared in Armenia after
the presidential elections 2008, a strict censorship was imposed. Several
media closed down rather than submit to it. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus
all maintain tight state controls over the management and work of their TV
companies, the Memorandum says. "Armenia is being strongly pressed to permit
the popular independent TV channel "A1+", whose broadcasting license was
taken away in 2002", to give a possibility for broadcast in line with the
ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, the Explanatory Memorandum of
the "Respect for Media Freedom" report emphasizes.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
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