The Armenian prisoners of war, including civilians, kept by Azerbaijan after the 2020 war were subjected to coordinated state-sanctioned physical and psychological torture, Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan said at a news conference, presenting an emergency report by lawyers and human rights advocates regarding the responsibility of the Azeri government for the gross violations of human rights, ill-treatment, torture and inhumane treatment against Armenian captives in Azeri custody.
During a discussion organized by the Union of Journalists of Armenia entitled “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed”, human rights lawyer, co-founder of Path of Law non-for-profit organization Siranush Sahakyan spoke about two initiatives: criminalizing heavy insult and accreditation of journalists in the parliament. In her speech Siranush Sahakyan discussed how much this process complies with international standards.
During a discussion entitled “Against press restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed” organized by Armenia’s Union of Journalists, the head of the Union, Satik Syranyan discussed the problems in media sector and policies adopted by today’s government for the purpose of limiting the rights of media groups that are opposition for them.
According to him, if in the basis of this law proposal by the public prosecutor’s office it was mentioned that they had researched the international experience, he has not seen anything like that.
“It turns out lots of mines have been installed for us, most of which we, as journalists, are not aware of. We need to be ready for self-protection too because we are the primary target,” said Ani Gevorgyan, journalist of Armnews and Tert.am news agencies during a discussion entitled “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed” organized by the Union of Journalists of Armenia.
According to the lawyer, there are opportunities for protection of journalists based on the law, and for this purpose they have to be active in the legal environment.
“Research shows that the limitations that exist in the Natioanl Assembly have nothing to do with security and are imposed only for the goal of limiting the work of journalists,” said Nune Hovsepyan, head of the public relations department of the Human Rights Defender’s Office during a discussion entitiled “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed” organized by Armenia’s Union of Journalists.
“It’s been 2 years that I am involved in hate speech, as an act and criminally punishable action. Initially in Armenia there was a tendency for correcting hate speech, however, now it looks like this process is being taken towards defamation. I will use this definition, since there is no definition of insult and slander in international law. Any word that insults someone’s dignity is defamation, but not a hate speech. Hate speech is a narrower idea, described in 10 categories,” said Ara Ghazaryan, an international and criminal law specialist, during a discussion entitled “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed” organized by Armenia’s Union of Journalists.
“I wouldn’t even call it a political activity. What he was doing was a mere unacceptable bad language against the government of that time, and most of his statements have not been proven as they were baseless, and he called it journalism. And now he is questioning the work of journalists who, within the scope of their ethical professional behaviour and their rights to discuss political statements, are making political analysis and statements,” said the TV host.
On September 1, at around 11:10, the Azerbaijani armed forces once again resorted to provocation, by opening fire from sniper rifles at the Armenian positions located in the Yeraskh section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the defense ministry of Armenia said in a statement.
