“They have given a green light to those who oppress freedom of speech”, said David Sandukhchyan, lawyer of NGO “Internews” on the basis of the investigations carried out by their organization. According to him, during the previous years there was only one example to scare the journalists – the fact of banning “A1+” from air. And now there are numerous examples.

There have been 12 cases of hindering the professional activity of the journalists in late 2005 and early 2006. It is three times more than in 2004. By the way, the law enforcers did not try to find and punish those who are guilty. Moreover, the Mass Media themselves did not turn to the police. According to David Sandukhchyan, it is accounted for by the fact that “the Mass Media greatly depend upon the authorities”.

According to Avetiq Ishkhanyan, head of the Armenian Helsinki Committee, the authorities accept the majority of the journalists as enemies. A manifestation of the discrimination was that in connection with the 15th anniversary of Independence Robert Kocharyan awarded medals only to several representatives of pro-governmental Mass Media.

According to Ishkhanyan, it is meaningless to expect the authorities to demonstrate strong will when it comes to the defense of human rights, as “If they had political will, they would resign, but will they?”. According to him, the only way to have success in this field is to activate the society.