In Armenian

By the 13 March decree of Robert Kocharyan, several changes have been made to
his March 1 decree on declaring state of emergency regarding the restrictions in
the activity of mass media.



The sub-paragraph 4 of the paragraph 4: «publication on the national and
domestic political affairs must be carried on by mass media only within the
official information as of the state bodies» now appears in new wording: «it is
prohibited to mass media to publish or disseminate materials containing
deliberate misinformation on the national and domestic political affairs, or
information destabilizing the situation, or calls to participation in
non-official (illegal) events, or to publish and disseminate such calls in any
other ways.»



However, nothing has change in reality, and our concern expressed the day before
has been justified: the papers banned from March 1 were not published on March
14 as well. The editors of the newspapers are trying to explain the reasons:



ARMINE OHANYAN, «HRAPARAK» newspaper, editor-in-chief – We worked on
March 13, summarized the events of the past 15 days, and took the newspaper to
the publishing house at 2 o’clock in the morning, where the officer of the
National Security service was sitting, who told us, without any further
explanations that the newspaper will not be published. Being asked to provide
the reasoning, he told that he is not going to explain the reasons. The same way
he had refused to all other newspapers. Only the papers, being issued after
March 1, were published. So, the restrictions on media have not been eased, it
was just a formal step to demonstrate the West that the authorities are
compromising, however internally they preserved the same situation. So, it is
unclear will it be possible to be printed four days later, after the state of
emergency will be over. Or the authorities enjoyed this situation so much that
will keep on using these censorship methods.



ARAM ABRAHAMYAN, «ARAVOT» daily, editor-in-chief – Yesterday we worked,
prepared the newspaper and took it to the publishing house. The censor from the
National Security Service was sitting there, who is responsible for allowing or
banning the publication. They took out pages 4, 5, 6, and 7 of our newspaper
with the omitted press conferences of Levon Ter-Petrossian. The KGB censor said
that there is deliberate misinformation in those press conferences, which is
against the presidential decree, so the newspaper cannot be issued, and its
publication was banned. They declared of their decision to ease the restrictions
just to dust the eyes of international community, but they have not eased
anything.



«HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK» daily editor HAYK GEVORGYAN told that that they took
the newspaper as usual in the evening to the publishing house and also met the
National Security officer, who read the materials, talked with somebody on phone
and informed that «Haykakan Zhamanak» is not going to be published. Hayk
Gevorgyan also thinks that this relaxation of the restrictions “was not a
relaxation at all, but dusting the eyes of international community; our
authorities have the list of all the newspapers they are not going to print.”



After the declared relaxations electronic newspapers are not issued as well. The
editor of «LRAGIR» electronic newspaper HAYKAZN GHAHRIYAN told that as on
March 1, today they are also do not work not for they fault, but because the
newspaper has been shut down. According to Haykazn Ghahriyan, if the authorities
do not allow newspapers to operate, it means that no restrictions have been
lifted up.