Ashot Melikyan

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Armenian draft legislation would give government sweeping wartime censorship powers

Stockholm, January 19, 2023 – Armenian authorities should not use military conflicts as an excuse to curtail press freedom and should rework clauses in a draft bill that would threaten press freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday. On January 6, the public comment period closed for a bill drafted by the Ministry of…

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Armenia parliament passes bill allowing state bodies to revoke journalist accreditation

Stockholm, May 31, 2022 – Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan should refrain from ratifying legal amendments allowing state bodies to revoke journalists’ accreditation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. On May 25, Armenia’s parliament approved the amendments to the country’s mass media law, according to news reports and an entry on the parliamentary website. Previously, only media outlets could revoke…

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As Armenia legislates libel and insult, journalists worry ‘selective justice’ will be used against the press

When Armenia’s government took office after the 2018 Velvet Revolution, it seemed to usher in a new era of press freedom for the former Soviet Republic. But local journalists fear those days could be over as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government implements new legal amendments on insult and defamation. Under the amendments to the country’s…

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