Courts to not try journalists very often?
After the decriminalization of the RA law "On Offense and Slander", several lawsuits were filed against print media in 2011. This is what lawyer David Tumasyan mentioned during a press conference today.
Last year, the most lawsuits were filed against Hraparak Daily. "Interestingly, all the trials ended with reconciliation, and the main reason for the long duration of the trials," the lawyer underlined.
According to him, more and more media outlets prefer to print denial in their editions and close the cases with that. The lawyer calls on journalists to be guided by the rules of ethics when denying. According to Tumasyan, lawyers prepare the cases with certain flaws, and the courts very often return them.
Progress is made when journalists change their styles of writing after each trial and refrain from slander.
Editor of Aravot Daily Aram Abrahamyan says the abundance of civil lawsuits against the presses was only in the beginning when the RA law "On Offense and Slander" had just been decriminalized. "There had to be such a wave in the beginning. The authorities and the oligarchs became motivated and were happy that they would be able to make the presses file for bankruptcy, and there were decisions taken against some newspapers. However, when the representatives of European organizations started having meetings with our authorities and mentioned that such civil lawsuits had an impact on Armenia's reputation abroad, there was no longer a wave."
In addition to pressure from abroad, Abrahamyan predicts that those lawsuits will reduce since it is not in favor of either side.
