On February 4-6, 2006, for three days “Armenia”, “TV 5” and “ArmNews” TV
companies, being under the control of the authorities, aired a piece, aimed at
discrediting the activity of Helsinki Committee of Armenia. There was an attempt
to present our activity, implemented by the grant of OSCE, as espionage.

Disregarding the norms of professional ethics, the authors of the piece,
deceitfully interviewed President of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardian and
Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanian, and doing arbitrary
montage, used the material for official propaganda purposes.

This “reportage” was a response to our recently signed statement, in which the
Helsinki Committee showed that the country was deviating from the human rights
principles. The statement qualified as violation of the human rights the
following:

• dismissal of first RA Ombudsman by President’s anti-constitutional decree;
• biased activity of the courts in favor of the groups close to power;
• lawlessness of local autocrats in the regions;
• seizure of the Yerevan Center community by the entrepreneurs, acting under the
  roof of the authorities; the criminal proceedings initiated against Vahe
  Grigorian, a political prisoner and lawyer, defending the interests of the
  residents, forcefully ousted from this area;
• falsification of November 27 referendum results.

The Helsinki Committee of Armenia developed consistent activity against all
mentioned violations.

We think that the attacks started in Armenia against human rights activists,
undesirable for the authorities, are directly enacted from Russia, where NGOs
are now widely persecuted.

The Armenian authorities, unable to bring any justification of their unlawful
activities, started to use the arsenal of Soviet propaganda, wishing to disguise
the lawlessness common in the country by diverting the people’s attention
towards the “external enemy”, created by themselves. In this case, this enemy is
the structures, to which Armenia is a member (Council of Europe, OSCE).

Similarly to the way many Soviet journalists and media by the order of KGB were
engaged in anti-journalism, spreading of misinformation, for discrediting the
dissenters tried linking their work to foreign special services, now also
certain media are transformed into the tools, fulfilling the orders of the
high-ranking officials.

It is a pity that the investments of American Armenian Gerard Cafesjian,
co-owner of “Armenia”, “ArmNews” and “TV 5” TV companies serve official
propaganda, spreading of misinformation and renascence of Soviet
anti-journalism.

As these TV companies are under the control of the authorities, it is impossible
to respond to them on their own air.

This story demonstrates still more vividly the hatred of the authorities against
free press, reflected in banning the air of “A1+” and “Noyan Tapan” TV
companies.

The Helsinki Committee of Armenia rings an alarm:

The Soviet methods of fighting against the dissidents are restored and human
rights activity is endangered in Armenia.

Helsinki Committee of Armenia

February 10, 2006