From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Fri Oct 29 2004 - 15:04:26 EDT
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 22-28, 2004
HIGHLIGHTS:
FIREMEN ATTACKED "ARAGATS ASHKHAR" NEWSPAPER
CONVICT FOR ATTACK ON PHOTOJOURNALIST RELEASED
PRESS DISCUSSES REMOVAL OF THE RADIO LIBERTY PROGRAM FROM TV AIR
INDEX OF "REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS"
21st CENTURY CHALLENGES FOR THE MEDIA OF SOUTH CAUCASUS
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS BECAME AWARDEES OF "DESPITE-2004"
FIREMEN ATTACKED "ARAGATS ASHKHAR" NEWSPAPER
On October 27 in Tsaghkahovit village (Aragatsotn region) the head of
Aragats fire prevention department Gagik Barseghian and his deputy Nraz
Aloyan visited the editorial office of regional "Aragats Ashkhar"
newspaper to have a "heart-to-heart talk" with the Chief Editor Vardevan
Grigorian. As a result of a fight that ensued Vardevan Grigorian was
injured, the editorial property was damaged. The incident was reported
to Aragats Department of RA Police.
In the opinion of the edition, the reason for the incident was "The Poor
Firemen Have Nothing" article published in "Aragats Ashkhar", in which
the actions of the fire force during a fire at a villager's house were
criticized.
As YPC was told by the Chief Editor of the newspaper, the reason for the
incident was "The Poor Firemen Have Nothing" article ("Aragats Ashkhar",
October 1-15, 2004), in which the actions of the fire force during a
fire at a villager's house were criticized. Vardevan Grigorian also
stressed that this was not the first attack on the editorial office by
Gagik Barseghian: it also happened in July, 1999, after a similarly
critical publication on the local fire force. "Then we displayed
generosity and did not get the case to the police, even though we know
that the head of the fire prevention department received an
administrative punishment", the Chief Editor said.
CONVICT FOR ATTACK ON PHOTOJOURNALIST RELEASED
On October 26 Gagik Stepanian, convicted to six months' imprisonment for
having attacked on August 24 in Tsaghkadzor the correspondent of
"Photolure" photo news agency Mkhitar Khachatrian and obstructed the
professional activities of Mkhitar Khachatrian and the correspondent of
"Aravot" daily Anna Israelian, got an early release. As it has been
reported, the sentence was made on October 11, 2004 by the court of
primary jurisdiction of Kotayk region. Commenting on this case, YPC made
a supposition that the three-time convict Stepanian has a chance to
regain freedom quite soon, as the Armenian legislation permits - right
after the verdict came into force, since he had already spent one-third
of the sentence in custody (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
October 8-14, 2004). Our supposition came true.
PRESS DISCUSSES REMOVAL OF THE RADIO LIBERTY PROGRAM FROM TV AIR
The removal of "Azatutiun" ("Liberty") program, produced by Radio
Liberty Armenian Service, from the air of "Kentron" TV company, caused
much debate in the press. On October 13 the management of "Kentron"
announced the suspension of broadcasting the subsequent program issues
(the first one was aired on October 10). On October 19 the President of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Thomas Dine addressed a letter to the
President of Armenia Robert Kocharian, in which he urged the head of the
state "to denounce this contemptible Soviet-style act, and to help
return "Azatutiun" on air" (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
October 15-21, 2004).
On October 22 "Hayots Ashkhar" newspaper published the response of the
Spokesman of the RA President Ashot Kocharian to Thomas Dine under the
heading of "Ultimatums are Unacceptable". In the letter to the head of
Radio Liberty amazement is expressed at the fact of addressing the
President per se, since "Kentron" is a privately-owned TV company and
the decision about the discontinuation of "Azatutiun" program "was made
by its owner and management without any official pressure". Noting that
the RA Law "On Mass Communication" excludes any possibility of state
interference with the professional activities of media, Ashot Kocharian
reminded that "the authorities have always contributed to overcoming all
the existing problems related to Radio Liberty broadcasting on the air
of the Public Radio of Armenia". "We find the letter written as an
ultimatum unacceptable. You, unfortunately, still operate with "Cold
War" categories of the East-West confrontation times", the address of
the President's Spokesman ends up saying.
A day before, in an interview to "Aravot" daily of October 21, the
Director of "Kentron" Petros Ghazarian announced that the decision about
discontinuing the broadcasts of "Azatutiun" was made by the owner of the
TV company and himself: "For me this is primarily a commercial problem.
I have agreements and I cannot disclose all the details, because if I
violate the commercial agreement with any one (in this case this refers
to the representative of Radio Liberty), I will lose the confidence of
others."
On October 21 "Hayots Ashkhar" daily published an article titled "Why
the Head of Radio Liberty Raised Noise", telling about another program
of Radio Liberty Armenian Service "Nothing but the Truth", shown on
September 28, 2004 on the air of another Yerevan TV company, "Shant". In
the article the head of "Shant" TV Artur Yezekian says, in particular,
that he and the Director of Radio Liberty Armenian Service Hrair
Tamrazian engaged in negotiations on various joint projects, also on the
creation of a weekly newscast. However, according to Artur Yezekian, the
TV company was unable to accept this proposal for a number of reasons
(including the technical and financial ones). As to the only issue
"Nothing but the Truth" program, its preparation, as the head of "Shant"
said, was placed "actually on the TV company and only the host and the
producer were from Radio Liberty". "Aravot" newspaper, in its piece of
October 22, stated that "Shant" TV company was paid $ 5,000 for the
production of "Nothing but the Truth". "This amount is almost twice more
than the one TV companies are paid for such programs", "Aravot" writes.
On October 23 the same "Aravot" informed about the proposal of the head
of "A1+" TV company Mesrop Movsesian to use the technical facilities and
other resources of "A1+" "that has been deemed to idleness" - to solve
the problems that other channels encounter when producing the programs
of Radio Liberty. "If this is only an issue of production, "A1+" is
willing to make TV programs for Radio Liberty, even free of charge",
Mesrop Movsesian said.
The press also voiced a version that the Chairman of the Council of
Public TV and Radio Company Alexan Harutiunian may have something to do
with the failures of Radio Liberty TV programs. He is said to be
obstructing the airing of the TV programs on other channels so as to get
this project for the Public Television of Armenia. In an interview to
"Golos Armenii" newspaper of October 23 Alexan Harutiunian rejected this
supposition, saying that he had nothing to do with the presence or
absence of Radio Liberty from other channels. He also confirmed that PTA
and Radio Liberty discussed the possibility of going on the air of
Public TV. "Thus, for me such talks were very unexpected and insulting.
Particularly, when this was related to my alleged demands of money for
the airtime provision. This simply could not happen. Radio Liberty has
no budget for TV programs for myself or someone else to await money from
that. Moreover, the radio station itself expected assistance from us. It
expected us to help it go on air", the Chairman of the Council of Public
TV and Radio Company said. The question of the newspaper as to whether
there was a probability that Radio Liberty would have a program on PTA,
Alexan Harutiunian answered that any program "is born when all the
necessary conditions are in place, from human resources to technical
facilities".
INDEX OF "REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS"
On October 26 "Reporters Without Borders" (RSF) international
organization published its third worldwide press freedom index. The
study was conducted in 167 countries of the world and based on events
between September 1, 2003 to September 1, 2004. RSF index was compiled
by surveying 14 partner organization and 130 correspondents of RSF, as
well as journalists, researchers, lawyers and human rights activists.
The respondents were assessing the press freedom in each country with a
questionnaire compiled by RSF and including 52 criteria: ranging from
various forms of pressure on journalists and media to legislative
restrictions, the behavior of authorities towards the state-owned media
and foreign press. Main obstacles to the free flow of information on the
Internet were also taken into account.
In the opinion of RSF, press freedom is threatened most in East Asia and
Middle East, where "freedom of media and the safety of journalists are
not guaranteed". Thus, the continuing war in Iraq has made it "the most
deadly place on earth for journalists": 44 journalists were killed there
since the fighting started in March 2003.
Similarly to the previous research (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, October
17-23, 2003), the bottom lines are taken by North Korea (167th this
time) and Cuba (166th), again named by RSF to be "the biggest prison for
journalists", second only to China (162).
The greatest "haven of peace for journalists" is recognized to be
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia
and Switzerland that are sharing the top line in RSF rating. All members
of European Union are among the 40 freest countries.
The remarkable progress made by Turkey (113) with its legislation with a
view to joining the EU has still not translated into a significant
improvement in press freedom in practice, RSF thinks.
Among the former Soviet Union countries the press freedom situation is
most favorable in Latvia (10), Estonia (11) and Lithuania (16). The
Baltic countries are followed, at a great distance, by Moldova (78),
Armenia (83), Georgia (94), Tajikistan (95), Kyrgyzstan (107),
Kazakhstan (131), Azerbaijan (136), Ukraine (139), Russia (140),
Uzbekistan (142), Belarus
(144) and Turkmenistan (164).
The drop in Azerbaijan's rating (that had taken the 113th line in the
previous study) is said by RSF to be a result of "a decline in press
freedom since October 2003 presidential election": "Around 100
journalists were physically attacked and detained during the rioting
that followed the polls. One of them, who is also the leader of an
opposition party, was sentenced to five years in prison." Georgia's
fall from 73rd (in the previous study) to 94th line, in the opinion of
"Reporters Sans Frontieres", is due to "unrest in the autonomous
republics of Ajaria and Abkhazia, which gave rise to press freedom
violations".
Thus, this time Armenia got ahead of its neighbors in South Caucasus
region. However, what factors allowed to improve the press freedom in
our country and enabled it to rise by 7 points (from the 90th to 83rd
line) since the last time remains unclear. The study presented on the
RSF web-site does not say a word on that.
21st CENTURY CHALLENGES FOR THE MEDIA OF SOUTH CAUCASUS
On October 25-26 in Tbilisi "21st Century Challenges for the Media of
South
Caucasus: Dealing with Libel and Freedom of Information" conference was
held. The event was organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of
the Media and the OSCE Mission to Georgia. The conference participants
discussed the overall situation of media in South Caucasus, issues of
criminal libel and insult, the problems of access to information. A
declaration was adopted, summing up the results of the event.
The presentation of the President of Yerevan Press Club Boris
Navasardian made at the conference on the situation of Armenian media
will be published in the next issue of YPC Weekly Newsletter.
ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS BECAME AWARDEES OF "DESPITE-2004"
On October 22 in Moscow, at the Central House of Journalist the ceremony
of awarding the winners of the international competition for print media
journalists "Despite" named after Larisa Yudina was held. Since 1999 the
competition, established by "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper, Glasnost Defense
Foundation and "Yabloko" Democratic Party of Russia, is held annually on
the birthday of the Chief Editor of "Sovetskaya Kalmikia" newspaper
Larisa Yudina, killed in June 1998. The winners of the competition are
the representatives of the "fourth estate" that perform their
professional duty despite all the obstacles. Since 2002 the competition
has become international, and this year journalists of Russia, Armenia,
Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine took part in it. The 20 awardees of
"Despite-2004" also include two Armenian journalists: Valeria Zakharian
("Novoe Vremya"
newspaper) and Aristakes Ghazinian ("Golos Armenii" newspaper).
When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.
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Editor of YPC Newsletter - Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
375007, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 1) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 1) 53 56 61
E-mail: pressclub@ypc.am
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