Upon my proposal, the fine for insult will be AMD 5,000,000 instead of the previous AMD 1,000,000, and the fine for defamation will be AMD 10,000,000 instead of the previous AMD 2,000,000. This is what Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters in parliament.
“This is an initial proposal, and in its turn, the government proposes AMD 2,000,000 and AMD 3,000,000, respectively. I believe this will be considered during the plenary session of the National Assembly because I would like to hear opinions from the deputies of all parliamentary factions. As a person who has filed six lawsuits regarding insult and defamation, I assure you that this will further restrain people to not spread false news and insult people. It will also relieve our dear citizens of seeing the trash on the Internet. I believe this step is necessary and a little late,” he said.
Simonyan expressed confidence that the large amount can restrain people who insult and defame others, including political figures. He emphasized that this is about real people since fake users don’t have a big influence.
Touching upon the lawsuits that he has filed, Simonyan said he is certain that he will win because the absurdities and fairy tales are mainly slander.