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.
“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.
Today, Armenia’s Union of Journalists organized a discussion “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and the right to be informed”. During this discussion Satik Seyranyan, head of Armenia’s Union of Journalists made a speech, in which she said that the authorities, the circles that serve them, are targeting journalists, and for a quite long time they have been segregating media into theirs and outsiders.
“The heritage of authorities in our country is expressed in one thing – hate towards media, acting against media and limiting the freedom of speech” said the chief editor of Hraparak daily Armine Ohanyan today during a discussion entitled “Against media restrictions, for the sake of free speech and right to be informed” organized by the Union of Journalists of Armenia.
The opposition “With Honor” and “Armenia” factions of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia condemn the embarrassing violence used against deputies of the National Assembly in parliament today.
