Violent attacks against journalists in Armenia decreased but financial pressure on media outlets up, finds OSCE Office-supported report

YEREVAN, 20 February 2012 – A report on freedom of the press and speech in Armenia during 2010 and 2011 supported by the OSCE Office was presented in Yerevan today.

The report was prepared by Investigative Journalists, a non-governmental organization. It is the result of two years of monitoring, which revealed that the main obstacles hindering media development in Armenia include financial pressures brought to bear on media outlets via defamation and insult suits in courts. 

“This publication is a useful reference on how the judiciary in Armenia handles cases involving the media,” said Oliver McCoy, Democratization Programme Officer of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. “Most importantly, the report provides a sound basis for assessing the challenges to freedom of the press and speech in Armenia, and working out ways to improve the situation.”

The report follows a similar assessment of the 2008 and 2009 period.

The first section of the report presents articles covering 37 court cases during 2010 and 2011 involving reporters as litigants. The charges against reporters mainly dealt with defamation and insult impugning personal honour, dignity or business reputation. It also includes analysis of the verdicts by independent legal experts with reference to the European Convention of Human Rights.

“We came to the conclusion that although decriminalization of libel and slander in 2010 was a positive legislative development, it had a negative impact on the media, because of high damage awards they had to pay under defamation-related civil suits,” said Liana Sayadyan, Vice-President of the Investigative Journalists and editor of the publication. “Our monitoring of the past four years also indicates that physical violence follows a regular pattern, increasing during pre-election periods and decreasing in non-election years.”

The second part of the publication contains a summary of incidents of physical violence against reporters during the period and provides updates regarding prior court cases involving reported intimidation or violence. According to the publication, incidents decreased in 2010 and 2011, to nine and four incidents respectively, compared with 18 and 11 in 2008 and 2009.

The electronic version of the report is available at //www.osce.org/yerevan/88250.