September 10, 1999
His Excellency Robert Kocharian
President of the Republic of Armenia
26 Marshall Baghramyan St.
Yerevan, Armenia 375012
Fax: 011-3742-151-152
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by the criminal prosecution of Nikol Pashinian, editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Oragir, as well as by efforts on the part of your government to shut down the paper.
On August 31, a Yerevan court sentenced Pashinian to one year in prison on five separate counts of slander, libel, and refusing to obey a court order that resulted from an earlier libel conviction. This is the first criminal prosecution for libel of a journalist in post-Soviet Armenia. If the sentence is carried out, it would mark the first imprisonment of a journalist since Armenia became independent in 1991. Pashinian’s jail sentence is scheduled to begin around September 15; he remains free in the meantime.
Oragir is affiliated with the Nor Ughi opposition party, headed by former Education Minister Ashot Bleyan, who is now in prison awaiting trial on embezzlement charges. Pashinian believes the authorities want to silence him on political grounds.
Pashinian’s jail sentence results in part from two articles published in the May 20 edition of Oragir. The first article alleged that the wife of Artashes Gegamian had attempted to smuggle diamonds out of the country. (Pashinian claimed that the story was confirmed by customs officials). The second article alleged that the son of Norik Aivazian, a prominent legislator, had been involved in a brawl.
Apart from this criminal defamation conviction, Pashinian is also being jailed for refusing to comply with court decisions in several civil cases. In March, Oragir lost a defamation suit brought by National Security Minister Serzh Sarkisian for articles claiming rampant corruption in his ministry. Pashinian refused to publish a retraction as ordered by the court.
In April, a Yerevan court ruled that Oragir had damaged the reputation of Mika-Armenia, a local trading company, when it published a series of articles accusing the firm of having won a government tender through Sarkisian’s patronage. The court ordered Oragir to print a retraction and pay a $25,000 fine, which the newspaper refused to do.
On June 4, the court brought criminal charges against Pashinian for failing to pay the fine and print a retraction. A few days later, the general prosecutor’s office filed criminal charges against Pashinian for allegedly verbally insulting two justice ministry officers when they tried to confiscate his newspaper’s computer equipment. On June 8, authorities shut down the newspaper, sealed off its premises and froze all its bank accounts.
In July, the paper resumed publishing under another name, Haykakan Zhamanak, in an effort to avoid new lawsuits. For nearly a week beginning September 3, Pigran Met, the daily’s printer, temporarily halted printing Haykakan Zhamanak, claiming it had failed to pay its bills. Pashinian claims that his account was up to date and that the printer acted in response to government pressure.
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists devoted to defending press freedom around the world, CPJ condemns the criminal prosecution of Nikol Pashinian, as well as your government’s attempts to shut down his newspaper. CPJ believes that no journalist should be imprisoned for what he or she writes. Applying criminal penalties for defamation is a clear violation of international conventions on free expression, to which, we respectfully remind Your Excellency, Armenia is a signatory.
We urge you to use the powers of your office to ensure that Pashinian’s jail sentence is overturned, and to work for the repeal of all Armenian laws that criminalize free expression.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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His Excellency Robert Kocharian
President of the Republic of Armenia
26 Marshall Baghramyan St.
Yerevan, Armenia 375012
Fax: 011-3742-151-152