July 2021 - Բազմակողմանի տեղեկատվության ինստիտուտ

Digital security training

On July 19 – 20, 2021 Media Diversity Institute carried out a digital security training for civil society organizations. The training was led by digital security consultants Samvel Martirosyan and Vartan Arzumanyan.

A range of civil society organizations, including “Law Development Center”, “Women in Armenia Foundation”, “Women’s Resource Center”, “Eurasia Partnership” Foundation, “Armenian Progressive Youth”, Public Journalism Club, “Advocacy Without Borders” and others took part in the training.

This capacity building event was implemented under the “EU4LabourRights: Increasing Civic Voice and Action for Labour Rights and Social Protection in Armenia” project, which is implemented by OxYGen Foundation, Socioscope NGO, “Asparez” Journalists’ Club NGO, Armenian Progressive Youth NGO, Media Diversity Institute – Armenia in cooperation with Protection of Rights without Borders NGO, and Eurasia Partnership Foundation. The Project is funded by the European Union.

STATEMENT

Drafts amending the decision No 1230-N of the RA Prime Minister dated 19 September, 2018, the decision no 1104-N of the RA Government dated 30 August 2012, and the decision No 982-N of the RA Government dated 22 September 2016 have recently been posted on the website e-draft.am. The first of them foresees non-disclosure on the website e-gov.am of any information on the objectives of the official trips, discussed topics, meetings, speeches of and decisions adopted by public officials. The second foresees non-disclosure of information in relation to procurement from one person, the register of hazardous industrial objects, the data of companies entitled to exploit land resources with a view to extracting useful fossils and conducting archeological expeditions. In addition to this, it is suggested to remove from the website gov.travel.am information on the airline carriers, flights, their cost, registration codes, and numbers of passengers.

These documents were developed by the RA Ministry of High Technologies in cooperation with the RA National Security Service.

We are extremely concerned about the fact that the political force having come to power on the wave of the 2018 revolution, which also won the June 20 snap parliamentary elections, is tabling restrictions in the area of freedom of information unnecesary in a democratic society. The overwhelming majority of the documents posted for discussion contradict Article 51 of the RA Constitution, the RA Law on Freedom of Information and Armenia’s OGP international obligations.

The fact that these authorities have failed to adopt transparent working procedures is also proven by lack of willingness to amend the provisions of the Law on Procurement, according to which the expenditures of the first 3 figures in the State (the RA Prime Minister, the President and the President of the NA) were classified as state secrets by the previous authorities. The next move giving rise to concern was the approval by the Government of the draft law on restricting environmental information in April 2020. The package of draft discussed currently is the logical continuation of this wrong approach.

Taking note of the statement disseminated by the Ministry for High Technologies today, we, nevertheless, stress that it does not alleviate our doubts that the authorities owing to their subjective perceptions and narrow political interests will obstruct the further flow of information of public interest.

Considering that restrictions on such information create corruption risks, contradict the RA legislation and international norms on transparent and accountable governance, we, the undersigned organisations demand that the RA Government:

Annuls the above drafts,
Holds comprehensive discussions with the relevant state organisations, professional non-governmental organisations, independent experts and the representatives of international organisations with a view to finding solutions to freedom of information problems.

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 FUTURE
JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
GORIS PRESS CLUB
FEMIDA NGO

STATEMENT

The Special Investigative Service decided to reject the institution of criminal proceedings on the facts of obstructing the professional activities of Anush Dashtents, correspondent of Hraparak Daily, seizing the latter’s mobile phone, breaking its password and deleting the videomaterial allegedly committed by MP Hayk Sargsyan.

We, the undersigned organisations, referred to the above incident in our joint
statement of June 4.

Incidentally, in his decision senior investigator Khoren Mezhloumyan referred to the above facts for which criminal liability is foreseen by the Criminal Code. Nevertheless, he came to the conclusion that the elements of crime are missing, since ‘it is necessary that the offender consciously obstructs lawful professional journalistic activity or compels spreading the information or refusing to spread information.’

This justification is surprising at its best, since it is difficult to assume that the MP was not conscious that he was seizing the journalist’s mobile phone and, likewise, unconsciously deleted its undesirable content. We insist that this incident is a clear case of obstructing professional journalistic activity. However, even if the investigator failed to give adequate classification to the crime, unlawful seizure of the journalist’s property, infringement on her privacy and obstructing her from disseminating information are sufficient grounds for holding Hayk Sargsyan liable.

Comparing this decision of the SIS with the campaign promise of the acting RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that following his victory there would be dictatorship of law in the country, we have to note that this dictatorship must unequivocally apply to everyone, regardless of whether the offender is a representative of the ruling party, opposition or an apolitical person.
With this clear expression of our condemnation of this conclusion by the SIS, we demand that:

The RA Prosecutor’s Office applies its supervisory powers to quash the decision of the SIS, institute criminal proceedings and remit the case for investigation;
The Civil Contract Party discusses Hayk Sargsyan’s conduct with journalists and publicly condemns this and all the previous incidents involving him;
The newly elected National Assembly urgently resolves the issue of a permanent ethics commission, as well as regulates the relations between MPs and journalists, excluding any mutual disrespect and intolerance.