State official sues Business Express weekly

On March 15, the trial in the case of Artashes Bakhshian, a member of the Armenian State Commission on Protection of Economic Competition, versus the Business Express weekly started at the court of first instance of Yerevan's Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun Communes.

The conflict broke out after the newspaper (No 39, September 25 - October 2, 2003) had published an interview with Artashes Bakhshian. According to Business Express editor-in-chief Eduard Nagdalian, the interview was very extensive and its content was "shocking". Therefore, the article was abridged and provided with editorial comments. Afterwards, Artashes Bakhshian called the editors and declared that the content of the interview was distorted as a result of the editorial interference. The parties did not come to an agreement, and Artashes Bakhshian applied to the court demanding that the weekly should publish the interview in full. The editor-in-chief noted the editors were ready to meet this requirement but only after the court decision.

At the first sitting of the court, the parties were suggested to enter in the agreement of lawsuit and were given time to think over it.