Cases Of Violation Against Journalists In Armenia Are Continuing

Today on October 12 the journalist of Aravot Daily Ruzan Minasyan was subjected to the violent attack in the office of the newspaper. A group of people entered her working room and started to bit her and scream swear-words in her address.

As Aravot Daily has informed, the journalist was attacked by the relatives of those who were killed on July 24, 2002. They justified their behavior by the fact that Aravot Daily shouldn’t publish the letter of the convicted to a life-sentence for the murders. In this letter the convicted was insisting that he is not guilty. Ruzan’s colleagues called the Police. The group of attackers was taken to the Police station. A criminal proceeding has started on the basis of the Article 164 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (Hindrance to the legal professional activities of a journalist).

Violations against journalists are becoming common in Armenia which is a direct consequence of the atmosphere of impunity and non-condemnation. As Ruzan told in telephone conversation, this case is demonstrating how vulnerable and unprotected the journalists are especially those who are covering legal and human rights issues

We call the Armenian authorities and the civil society first of all to condemn the cases of violations against journalists as those cases undermine the principles of the freedom of speech. We also call the authorities to provide fair and impartial investigations of these cases and punish those who are guilty.