MDI Armenia, Author at Բազմակողմանի տեղեկատվության ինստիտուտ

Armenia -- Journalists pushed around while covering tycoon Gagik Tsarukian's departure from NSS, Yerevan, 16Jun2020

“The Security Forces Not Only Failed To Protect The Journalists, But Also Hindered Their Work”

Yesterday, on June 16, 2020 when “Prosperous Armenia” party leader Gagik Tsarukyan following his interrogation at the RA National Security Service went out to his supporters gathered in the area, as a result of scuffle as well as police actions, at least 5 journalists covering the process suffered. In particular, “News.am” correspondent Liana Sargsyan, “Tert.am” reporter Ani Gevorgyan, “Yerkir.am” correspondent Tatevik Kostandyan, “Kentron” TV journalist Artur Hakobyan and “MegaNews.am” editor Margarita Davtyan were injured.

According to the injured journalists, the media representatives found themselves surrounded by the police in the confusion, after which they were hit. Regardless of whether these actions were targeted or were conditioned by negligence or insufficient professional training, we note that the security forces not only failed to protect the journalists, but also hindered their work.

We, the undersigned journalistic organizations, condemn any violence against media representatives who perform their professional duties, and demand from the RA Police to carry out an objective internal investigation to study the incident and bring those responsible to justice.

At the same time, given that these events take place in the state of emergency conditioned by coronavirus, we urge media executives to keep away their employees from appearing in the center of gatherings of people while covering rallies, and in case it is impossible, to give clear instructions on complying with security measures.

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB

MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER

“ASPAREZ” JOURNALISTS’ CLUB

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER

MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE-ARMENIA

PUBLIC JOURNALISM CLUB

“JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE”

“JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS”

GORIS PRESS CLUB

MDIA joins the Digital Agenda Initiative

Media Diversity Institute – Armenia has joined forces with partners like Freedom of Information Center, Journalists for the Future, Grandlex and Digital Rights to push for Armenia’s Internet Freedom Policy Agenda.

The specific goals of the initiative are:

a) Adoption of a long-term policy agenda that will guide the coalition of civil society organizations and other interested groups in advocating free and non-discriminatory access to the Internet.
b) Drafting specific amendments to the Law on Electronic Communication based on the long- term policy agenda and launching an advocacy campaign for their adoption.
c) If required launching strategic litigation aimed at changing controversial decisions of regulatory and/or executive authorities.

The draft concept of the policy agenda is here.

Statement of the media organizations on restrictions of citizens

On March 31, 2020 the RA National Assembly adopted a bill, which will give the government additional tools to fight the pandemic under the State of Emergency at the same time limiting the citizens’ rights to the protection of personal data, privacy, freedom of communication.

We acknowledge that in the face of natural disasters and other emergencies fundamental human rights and freedoms may be restricted for the sake of public safety. However, we want to emphasize that such restrictions are acceptable only at the minimum scale, necessary for achieving the set goals. Hence, the government must adhere to the principle of proportionality, as well as make sure that the restrictions are exercised with maximum transparency.

We hereby state that the government is accountable to the public even under the State of Emergency and is not exempt from responsibility for its actions. Sadly, the parliamentary debates of the aforementioned bill did not provide definitive answers to a range of key matters of public concern.

Based on the above, we call on the RA government and the Commandant’s Office, to duly inform the citizens which institutions (be them public or private) are analyzing the personal data of the citizens, what is being done to ensure the adequate level of protection and security of the data, as well as provide clear information on the results achieved by the implementation of these measures. We also find it expedient to provide for public oversight of data collection and processing.

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB

MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE – ARMENIA

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER

MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER

PUBLIC JOURNALISTS’ CLUB

SUPREMACY OF LAW NGO

JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE

GORIS PRESS CLUB

JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

“FEMIDA” PUBLIC ORGANIZATION

April 2, 2020

Statement on Ensuring Media Coverage under The State of Emergency

We, the undersigned organizations, have noted with satisfaction that on March 25 the RA Government reviewed its March 16 decision and ended the disproportionate limitations of covering issues related to the coronavirus.

Nevertheless, we note that the revised provisions do not clearly define the body, which is authorized to provide official information and comment on behalf of the State of Emergency Coordinating Body. This raises problems when trying to effectively utilize relevant arrangements for the state of emergency.

Given the need under the current situation for the public to be informed and receive accurate, reliable, and comprehensive information, we call on the RA government to immediately define a clear procedure for providing the requested information and appoint a responsible authority.

As in our previous statement, we reconfirm our readiness to support any undertaking aimed at ensuring that the public is properly informed.

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB
MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER
JOURNALISTS’ CLUB “ASPAREZ”
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER
MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE – ARMENIA
PUBLIC JOURNALISM CLUB
JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE
JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
GORIS PRESS CLUB

Statement on Provisions Limiting Freedom of Speech in Government’s Decision to Institute a State of Emergency

March 20, 2020, Yerevan

We, the undersigned, have in various formats expressed our negative opinion about the provisions of the Government’s decision to institute a State of Emergency in the Republic of Armenia, which regulate the dissemination of information.

After those provisions went into force, we have registered that their implementation is ineffective, non-proportional, unreasonable and contradicts public interest under the conditions of the pandemic.

We are calling on the RA Government and State of Emergency Coordinating Body:

To immediately call back provisions 23, 24, 25 and 26 of the Government decision # 298-N, about instituting a state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia as of March 16;
Develop a new provision regulating the dissemination of information, which will clarify possible limitations for this complicated situation, will aid in the adherence to norms of professionalism and effective interactions between the government bodies and media for the public good.

We express readiness to help in developing such a document.

Yerevan Press Club

Media Initiatives Center

Freedom of Information Center

Public Journalism Club

Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression

Journalists’ Club “Asparez”

Media Diversity Institute – Armenia

Journalists for the Future

Journalists for Human Rights

Goris Press Club

Supremacy of Law

Statement on the Draft Amendments to the Criminal Code

The new draft of the amendments to the Criminal Code posted on the official website e-draft.am by the Ministry of Justice raised serious concerns among the journalistic circles. In particular, Article 443 relating to filing a false police report prescribes liability, including imprisonment for publishing false information on a criminal case or commission of a crime by someone in the media.

We, the undersigned organisations, note the clarifications provided by the Ministry to the effect that the purpose of the said amendments was not targeting the media or journalists. Nevertheless, we state that transposing the crime of filing a false police report to the field of the media is an innovation unused in the past (it does not exist in the current Criminal Code) and not necessary at present, which can threaten seriously freedom of expression and impede media activity. Moreover, this will have a “chilling effect” on the media sources to impart confidential information on cases of public importance. Finally, even if a media outlet publishes false information on a criminal case or the commission of a crime by someone, this issue can be resolved by means of civil law regulations through liability for defamation rather than criminal prosecution.

Considering the aforesaid, we demand that the authors of the draft refrain from transposing the problem of filing a false police report to the field of the media and remove from Article 443 the wording “… or publication of similar information in the mass media.”

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB

MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER

JOURNALISTS’ CLUB “ASPAREZ”

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER

MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE – ARMENIA

PUBLIC JOURNALISM CLUB

JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE

JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

GORIS PRESS CLUB

SUPREMACY OF LAW

Cyber-security for journalism students. training

As part of its CyberHUB-AM project MDI Armenia organized a digital security training for journalism students at the Journalism Faculty of Yerevan State University.

The Digital Security specialists of CyberHUB-AM Samvel Martirosyan, Vartan Arzumanian and Artur Papyan discussed IT security threats, digital security tools with future journalists, responded to the questions.

Cybersecurity for Journalists. training

As part of its CyberHUB-AM project the MDI Armenia held a free digital security training for journalists.

The founders of CyberHUB-AM team Samvel Martirosyan and Artur Papyan discussed IT security threats, digital security tools with journalists, helped them reconfigure their messengers, social media and email accounts for enhanced security, responded to the questions.

Digital Security for Civil Society. Training

As part of the CyberHUB-AM project Media Diversity Institute – Armenia and the OxYGen Foundation jointly co-organized a digital security training for a range of Armenian NGOs, working on gender and women’s issues.

The training covered issues around risk identification and risk management, protecting organizational websites and social media accounts from possible attacks, as well as internal communication and sensitive data.

Statement on the attack against “Epikentron” filming-crew

On December 24, 2019, in Hovtashen community of Ararat province, several dozens of residents attacked “Kentron” TV journalist Artur Hakobyan and cameraman Simik Mayilyan, hitting them and damaging the camera. The camera crew managed to save a part of the footage of the incident, which clearly shows the fact of violence.

According to “Epikentron” news agency director Varduhi Meltonyan, “Kentron” TV reporters, along with other media representatives, had arrived in Hovtashen to cover the issues related to the fish farm owned by Sedrak Arustamyan, Director of Multi Group Concern. The saved footage shows that the attack by the residents was targeted and aimed at hindering the work of the very TV company crew.

We, the undersigned journalistic organizations, express our resentment with regard to the obstruction of professional journalistic activities and the violence unleashed. We urge the law enforcement agencies to take measures to identify and bring all those responsible to justice.

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB

MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER

“ASPAREZ” JOURNALISTS’ CLUB

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION CENTER

MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE-ARMENIA

PUBLIC JOURNALISM CLUB

“JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE”

“JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS”

GORIS PRESS CLUB

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