FREE?: INTERNATIONAL PRESS MONITORS SAY ARMENIA HAS SHOWN “UNPRECEDENTED” PROGRESS IN MEDIA FREEDOM; LOCALS DISAGREE
- Despite the fact that the prestigious human rights watchdog Freedom House this year ranked Armenia among countries with “not free” media, and where freedom of speech is regressing, another international organization is attempting to draw a different picture. Reporters Without Borders (often referred to in French as Reporters sans Frontieres and abbreviated RSF due to being headquartered in Paris) is a non-profit organization that has consultant status at the United Nations. Based on its daily press releases, fact-finding mission reports and regular publications, the organization stages several annual events to highlight the issue of press freedom.
Unlike 2006, this year the media watchdog has registered “unprecedented” progress in press freedom and freedom of speech in Armenia.
According to the organization’s Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2007, Armenia is ranked 77th with an index of 23.63 among 169 countries reviewed, near such countries as Kenya, Haiti and Congo.
According to the same report, last year Armenia was in 101st place among 168 countries.
The best press freedom index was registered in Iceland, Norway and Estonia. The United Kingdom is 24th (8.25), and the Unites States is 48th (14.50).
Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea are at the bottom of the list having rolled back their free press and speech.
Armenia’s neighbor Georgia is in the 66th position with an index of 20.83.
“There is an improvement to some extent in Armenia and Georgia,” RSF director for Europe and the former Soviet Union Elsa Vidal said in an interview with RFE/RL.
The organization’s representative noted, however, that the same cannot be said about Azerbaijan where journalists have been subjected to persecution over the past year.
“Fabricated charges were brought against several of them at the time when they published articles not desirable for the authorities,” Vidal said. “That explains why Azerbaijan is considered to have one of the worst press freedom indexes.”
Azerbaijan is 139th in the rating list. Iran is 166th and Russia is 144th. The organization registered regression also in Turkey.
According to the report, Turkey’s rollback is conditioned also by the murder by a radical nationalist of Armenian Hrant Dink, editor of the Agos newspaper.
This year Turkey is 101st with an index of 31.25 – in contrast to Armenia’s leap.
“We see certain improvement in Armenia and Georgia, especially in terms of making information available for the public,” Vidal said.
However, this improvement is “not obvious” for Armenia’s organizations dealing with free speech and human rights issues, which periodically conduct studies in this field.
“It is at least abnormality to ascribe such progress to Armenia,” Artur Sakunts, head of the regional branch of the Armenian Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Vanadzor, said. “How can information be considered available in Armenia? How can they speak about the availability of public information in the case when during this year’s parliamentary elections all television companies were controlled by the government?”
Sakunts says that the researches regularly conducted by his organization show that violence and threats against journalists have not stopped.
Press monitoring coordinator at the Yerevan Press Club Elina Poghosbekyan also agrees that nothing has happened in Armenia over the past year for such a huge progress to be registered.
“We have no explanation as to on what basis the organization has registered such ‘progress’,” Poghosbekyan says. “Reporters Without Borders do not comment on the freedom of press situation in Armenia in any way. In other words, the journalistic community of Armenia continues to remain unaware what prompts such drastic ups and downs in its rank, particularly this time, when Armenia gained the highest line ever, going up by 25 ranks as compared to the 2005 and 2006 RSF index.”
According to specialists, the 2007 freedom of speech report by Freedom House gives a certain idea of the situation in Armenia. On the three-color ‘freedom gauging’ map of countries in that report Armenia is painted in purple.
According to Armenian Helsinki Committee Chairman Avetik Ishkhanyan, purple means absence of free speech. Ishkhanyan says Armenia has shown regression in the area of media freedom for the past five years.
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
Angered by a US congressional committee’s support of a proposed resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy. The strong US ally, and ...COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
7
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech this Independence Day did not draw me back to the times of his tenure, but as many others, to a much closer time – the coming presidential elections. And to the election campaign ...KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
1
Gegham Sergoyan, 21, took an oath to the Republic of Armenia Army to serve his country. While serving that oath, he was shot dead by an officer for laughing. On April 15 Sergoyan was watching TV at his ...HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER IN HAYASTAN: ASSEMBLY INVITES APPLICANTS FOR 2008 INTERNSHIPS
“When I come to Armenia, I feel at home. And here, I listen, and I yearn to go back to the stories of my family. This country I grew to love, but did not truly understand why. Because, at first, I loved ...CAR CULTURE ICON: FIRST DRIVE-IN COMES TO ARMENIA
When twilight covers the city the unattractive and solitary area adjacent to the huge bulbs production plant in the outskirt of Yerevan has been transforming into one of the romantic spots in the capital. ...MISSION ARMENIA PRESENTS: SOCIAL HOUSE FOR ELDERLY TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN
Amid hundreds of the new residential buildings in the city under construction, a three-floored building on 88 Sevak Street is not remarkable. Still it is probably the only current construction in the ...CUTTING INTO TROUBLE: ILLEGAL LOGGING DECREASES, BUT FORESTS STILL IN DANGER
Nazeli Vardanyan, chairwoman of the Armenian Forests NGO says the illegal logging of forests in Armenia has decreased twice as compared to previous years. While the amount of logged wood counted to annually ...DIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
Sometime within the next month, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection, through its new minister Aram Harutyunyan, will designate use of the Teghut region for mining exploitation. (Harutyunyan was appointed ...FREE?: INTERNATIONAL PRESS MONITORS SAY ARMENIA HAS SHOWN “UNPRECEDENTED” PROGRESS IN MEDIA FREEDOM; LOCALS DISAGREE
Despite the fact that the prestigious human rights watchdog Freedom House this year ranked Armenia among countries with “not free” media, and where freedom of speech is regressing, another international ...LAWS ON LEARNING: ASSEMBLY DEBATES CHANGES IN EDUCATION
The National Assembly’s standing committee for education and science organized parliamentary hearings on Tuesday (October 16) focused on proposed changes to legislation dealing with public education. ...FAITH FIGHT CONTINUES: JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES TARGETS OF HATE ATTACKS
Jehovah’s Witnesses say violence against them continues despite the attention of local and international organizations who oversee human rights abuses in Armenia. The five cases reported last year (see ...POINTS FOR EFFORT: FOOTBALL OFFICIALS PRAISE ARMENIA’S SOCCER DEVELOPMENT
The top executives of international and European football’s governing bodies praised the recent progress in Armenian football as they paid a two-day visit to Yerevan early this week. Sepp Blatter and ...BEATEN IN BRUSSELS: ‘RED DEVILS’ DASH ARMENIA’S HOPES FOR FIFTH SPOT IN THE GROUP
Football Three second-half goals from Belgium eclipsed Armenia’s otherwise promising performance in Brussels on Wednesday and put an end to their four-game unbeaten run in Euro-2008 qualification that ...
BIRTHING PAINS: FEE ON BABY DELIVERY REMAINS AN ISSUE OF CONTROVERSY IN ARMENIA
KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
COMMENT: NEITHER LTP NOR ANY OTHER “ONE PERSON” AS NECESSARY AS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
DECISION TIME: US CONGRESS CLOSES IN ON POSSIBLE HR 106 VOTE
CAR CULTURE ICON: FIRST DRIVE-IN COMES TO ARMENIA
HR 106 FALLOUT: TURKEY RECALLS US AMBASSADOR
HOSPITALITY WITH CAUTION?: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD TO VISIT YEREVAN
Richard Giragosian and John HughesDIGGING UP CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS UNHAPPY WITH EXPECTED MINING PERMISSION
AQUA DANCING: SQUARE’S FOUNTAINS RETURN WITH AN EVEN MORE GRACEFUL DANCE
- 1870 Birth of Atabek Khnkoyan (children's writer). He died in 1935.
- 1960 Death of writer Teegran Dzeetoonee.
- 1974 Creation of the Union Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery (USSR Ministry of Public Health) in Yerevan.
- Տրամաբանական խնդիրներ, գլուխկոտրուկներ, հանելուկներ
- Հայկական անեկդոտներ – Armenian jokes - Армянские анекдоты
- Մաթեմատիկա՞... համեցեք
- ինչպես կարդալ հայերեն MySql ից
- Շուտասելուկներ
- Գրաբարի դասեր
- Գուշակիր, թե ով է նկարի փոքրիկը
- Տնտեսագիտության արագացված կուրսեր
- Գուշակիր պատմության հերոսին
- Network Journal for Men
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.