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Yerevan Press Club Weekly Newsletter - 02/04/2010

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  • Yerevan Press Club Weekly Newsletter - 02/04/2010

    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.


    When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
    Press Club is required.

    You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
    [email protected]

    Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
    this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]

    Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
    _____________________________________ _______
    Yerevan Press Club
    9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
    0002, Yerevan, Armenia
    Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
    Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Web Site: www.ypc.am
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