Mesrop Harutyunyan
Expert in Committee for Protection of Freedom of Speech

The "Journalists without Borders" international organisation published the 2009 freedom of the press index. Armenia has retreated again and with 31.13 index (commentary: the lower the index, the higher the degree of freedom of press) appeared on the 111^th place (in 2008 Armenia was on the 101^st). Moreover, this is the biggest retreat in the last 6 years: the index increased for nearly 9 points (it was 22.75 in 2008). If we take into consideration the events, which took place in 2009, namely in the legislative sphere and in cases of violence committed upon journalists, the retreat should be considered logical.

However, the attitude of the "Journalists without Borders" stays beyond understanding. Thus the index of 2008 was lower than that of 2007, as the period between the 1^st and the 20^th of March was included in the calculation. On these days, when Yerevan was in state of emergency, evident censorship was carried out. Because of this many newspapers were not published, web sites were blocked and the TV companies showed nothing but the official information.

Anyway, according to the "Journalists without Borders" the freedom of press in Armenia retreated in 2009, and now our country is in the same group with Djibouti, Jordan and Tajikistan. Moreover, the press of Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Burundi and other similar countries is freer than in Armenia. Our neighbour Georgia is on the 81^st place; its index decreased nearly twice, comparing to last year (this means that the press has become twice freer). Some people are consoled with the fact that Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan are in a worse situation than us, but in our opinion this cannot serve as a consolation.

What could have influenced this change of the index? The most probable is that the censorship of March 2008 just found its response in the index-calculation or in the survey answers, which are taken as the basis of those calculations.

Secondly, there was the notorious law, which was enacted by the RA's Parliament on September the 10^th, 2008, named "On making amendments to the law on Television and Radio", according to which "Until July 20^th, 2010, there will be no contests announced for television and radio channels". Thus the contest for the right to launch a channel was stopped and the state got rid of the trouble of recognizing the "A1+" and "Noyyan Tapan" TV programmes as "losers" in the contests all over again, and the bother of giving explanations to the international public.

And finally, the period from September 2008 to September 2009 was remarkable for frequent attacks on pressmen and journalists, which could also influence the index of Armenia.

Summing up, we should say, that in the annual reports of the "Journalists without Borders" and other international organisations Armenia records "stable regress" generally in the spheres of democracy, and particularly of freedom of mass-media. Armenia is still retreating this year, and we witness that retreat every day. Just a fact: in order to realize that the television and radio launching sphere has its own "conductor", it is just enough to consider how many TV channels show the press conferences of the opposition figure, and how many channels praise the "wise policy of the dear authorities..."

It's been nearly 20 years, since this kind of publications have gone to history, but, I'm afraid that this retreat from democracy will bring us back to those times of controlled and subjugated press, the press, which " jointly approves..."

The rest is known...