10:54,

YEREVAN, MAY 24, ARMENPRESS. Parliament debated the bill by the ruling Civil Contract Party seeking to enable state bodies to withdraw the accreditation of journalists in case of violation of rules of accreditation.

State bodies will be entitled to withdraw the accreditation of journalists only if the journalist again violates the rules during 1 year after being warned in a written notification.

Lawmaker Artur Hovhannisyan from Civil Contract said the media outlet which employs the given journalist will be entitled to substitute them.

“I think this change is about maintaining the rules of coexistence in state bodies, about maintaining the normal work of journalists,” Hovhannisyan said.

Hovhannisyan said that some journalists’ conduct during press briefings in parliament is disrupting the course of the briefings and the work of other journalists. At the same time, Hovhannisyan noted the duly work of many other journalists covering the parliament.

Lawmaker Gevorg Papoyan expressed opinion that sometimes the society associates journalism with the conduct of individual journalists. “Therefore, this bill is for the hundreds of truly professional journalists, who shouldn’t think that some individual people can cast a shadow on an entire community with their inappropriate conduct,” he said.