Freedom of speech is an absolute value, and no one has the right to question that truth

RA Special Investigation Service (SIS) has instituted a criminal case on the basis of the publication of “Hraparak” Daily that Suren Papikyan, RA Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, had formerly been sentenced.

Pursuant SIS statement the case was launched in connection with materials prepared on the grounds of articles published on hraparak.am website on February 13, 2020 entitled “Suren Papikyan hid his conviction” and on lragir.am website on February 14, 2020 entitled “Suren Papikyan hinted who organized the leak of information about him”, upon Article 144 of RA Criminal Code and part 1 of Article 308, in relation to the case of alleged crime of illegally gathering and keeping information deemed to be secret of a person’s personal life and not popular information and illegally disseminating that information through abuse of official powers, and preliminary investigation is underway.

And this is when the legal, journalistic and professional communities have responded to the case for several days and point out that information on Minister Suren Papikyan cannot be kept secret and that information on any senior official is public property.

We see this as an attempt to undermine free press, restrict freedom of expression, and interfere with the work of media outlets by the authorities, which is absolutely unacceptable, particularly, for the government and the state that declared itself democratic.

We call on the authorities, in particular, the law enforcement, to refrain from interfering with the work of media outlets, attempts to creating unnecessary obstacles for them. Media outlets perform their work and inform the public on the occurrences in the country, provide miscellaneous information, including—on top officials.

Freedom of speech is an absolute value, and no one has the right to question that truth.

Union of Journalists of Armenia (UJA)