YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
APRIL 19-25, 2013
HIGHLIGHTS:
PRESS CLUB” CYCLE: COPYRIGHT, ETHICS AND REPRODUCTION
CORRESPONDENT OF ILUR.AM ASSAULTED AT RPA’S CAMPAIGN MEETING
“FEAR OF RETRIBUTION LED TO A HIGH DEGREE OF MEDIA SELF-CENSORSHIP”,
HIGHLIGHTS US STATE DEPARTMENT
PRESS CLUB” CYCLE: COPYRIGHT, ETHICS AND REPRODUCTION
On April 22, another program of
“Press Club”
cycle, dealing with journalistic ethics, went on “Yerkir Media” TV channel.
The weekly TV cycle is produced by Yerevan Press Club with the support of
Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
The “Press Club” participants considered how consonant with the copyright
legislation and professional ethics is the demand of some media to get a
written permission for full or partial reproduction of its materials. This
demand lately appeared in the rules of use of materials of
“Armenpress” and News.am ,
and provoked the topic of the talk show. Views on the issue were expressed
by the “Press Club” discussants, Harutyun Mkrtchian, correspondent of
eMedia.am , member of the Facebook group “For Fair
Journalism”, and journalist, publicist Harutyun Harutyunian. The experts
were Melanya Barseghian, observer of “Aravot”
online, Kristineh Hambarian, specialist of the Department of Copyright and
Related Rights of the Agency of Intellectual Property of RA Ministry of
Economy, Gevorg Hayrapetian, lawyer of Freedom of Information Center, and
Levon Barseghian, Board Chairman of “Asparez” Journalists Club of Gyumri.
YPC President Boris Navasardian hosted the talk show.
The next “Press Club” will be aired on “Yerkir Media” on Monday, April 29 at
18.00 (rerun – on Saturday, May 4 at 12.00).
Watch “Press Club” of April 22, 2013 here
CORRESPONDENT OF ILUR.AM ASSAULTED AT RPA’S CAMPAIGN MEETING
On April 23, at about 17.30 in Yerevan, at the campaign event of the
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), running in the Yerevan Council of Elderly
elections (incumbent Mayor Taron Margarian heads the electoral list of the
party) an incident occurred with Hakob Karapetian, correspondent of iLur.am
. On the same day, iLur.am published
an editorial ( “Member of the Council
of Elderly from the RPA Ashot Papayan Beats iLur.am Correspondent”), where
the incident is described in the account of Hakob Karapetian. According to
iLur.am, the journalist was shooting on a videocamera the event organizers
distributing balloons to the children, when some people approached him and
tried to find out who he was and what he was doing there. The journalist
answered that he “was carrying out his lawful professional duties”, and to
which one of the men told him: “Now do you want us to threat you by our
laws?” The skirmish drew the attention of one of the organizers of the
event, who was in a blue jacket with stripes. The man came up to Hakob
Karapetian and hit the journalist swearing at him. As iLur.am stressed, it
later identified the assaulter – Ashot Papayan, a member of Yerevan Council
of Elderly from the RPA, who is again running in these elections by the RPA
electoral list . The other participants of the skirmish joined the man and
started to pull and give blows to the journalist. Then they took away the
videocamera from Hakob Karapetian, and not long after returned it, but with
deleted files. According to iLur.am, a police major, who was present at the
site, did not intervene in the incident. However, he told the journalist
that he had called the police station. When the event started and Hakob
Karapetian resumed the shooting, somebody from the police called him,
recommending to address the police officers present at the site, and report
about the incident. In reply, Hakob Karapetian told them that he was
assaulted in front of hundreds of people, including the police major, and
nobody interfered. Now that he was standing at a place, where there were a
dozen of police officers, somebody told him that he should be the one to
come up to the police officer. Thus, Hakob Karapetian dropped the call.
Later, on the same day, April 23, iLur.am published another piece about the
incident , which contained the photos
of the man in a blue jacket and the police major, who was at the site of the
incident. In the April 24 article,
“The 34-Years Member of the Council of Elderly, Who Beat the Journalist, Is
a University Student Since 2006”, iLur.am provided the details of Ashot
Papayan’s biography.
On April 24, the RA Police stored a communication on its website,
“The Circumstances Are Being Investigated”.
The police report, particularly, stressed that Hakob Karapetian should
undergo a forensic medical examination in connection with the incident and
that an investigation is being conducted.
Several media, political parties and NGOs, including the RA Human Rights
Defender, came up with statements condemning the assault of the journalist.
“FEAR OF RETRIBUTION LED TO A HIGH DEGREE OF MEDIA SELF-CENSORSHIP”,
HIGHLIGHTS US STATE DEPARTMENT
On April 19, the US State Department released the
country reports on human rights practices for 2012, prepared by the Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
One of the sections of the Armenian country report touches upon the rights
to freedom of speech and press, which “the government did not always
uphold”: “There were several incidents of violence toward journalists,
largely in connection with the May 6 National Assembly elections. The number
of lawsuits for libel and defamation decreased.”
The State Department stresses that “print media continued to lack diversity
of political opinion and objective reporting”. At the same time, referring
to the reports of international and national observers, the State Department
notes that, in contrast to previous elections, broadcast media provided
diverse and objective coverage of campaign of the May 2012 parliamentary
elections. The report highlights that “the government did not release a
promised audit of the country’s television and radio frequencies that
provided the technical basis for limiting the number of digital broadcasting
licenses it permitted after the switchover from analogue to digital
transmission planned for 2015”. The country report also mentions about the
“A1+” TV company, which, since September 2012, broadcasts 20-minute daily
news programs on the air of “ArmNews” TV channel.
According to the country report authors, media, particularly broadcasters,
feared reprisals for reporting critical of the government: “Such reprisals
could include lawsuits, the threat of losing a broadcast license, selective
tax investigation, or loss of revenue when advertisers learned the media was
in disfavor with the government. Fear of retribution led to a high degree of
media self-censorship.”
“Online media were the primary alternative source of information, and,
unlike broadcast media, provided diverse political opinions. Their content
was largely unrestricted,” the State Department emphasizes.
There were some incidents of violence against journalists in connection with
the May 6, 2012 National Assembly elections. Thus, unknown persons attacked
Elina Chilingarian, correspondent
of Armenian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty outside a polling
station in Yerevan. Police opened a criminal case upon the incident but
closed it on July 13, 2012.
On March 21, 2012, the National Assembly passed a new Law “On the State of
Emergency”, which allows the restriction of freedom of
expression and media during a
declared state of emergency.
The report also stresses the November
15, 2011 ruling by the RA
Constitutional Court, which “resulted in fewer libel and defamation suits
during the year and the imposition of smaller damages against media”.
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
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