Journalists demand to lift restrictions on their work in Armenian Parliament

More than ten Armenian journalistic and human rights organizations have criticized the restrictions introduced on the journalists accredited at the Parliament. In a joint statement, they demanded to cancel the novelties that hinder their work in the parliament building.

On the first working day of the Parliament of the 8th convocation, media professionals were forbidden to work in the parliament buildings. "Media professionals have faced another reality," claim the authors of the statement.

The journalistic and human rights organizations have stressed that the restrictions were introduced without any preliminary discussion and without any due notification. They noted that no normative legal acts that would be the basis for restrictions had been adopted; and only on the day of the first session, when journalists faced the bans, the Speaker's corresponding decision was published.

"The restrictions create unreasonable obstacles for the professional activities of media people and have been introduced in order to save MPs from unpleasant questions and criticism in the media. The restrictions reduce the transparency and accountability of the Parliament to the society," the journalists have said, demanding to cancel the restrictions and initiate discussions with the participation of journalists accredited at the Parliament.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 4, 2021 at 01:21 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.