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Freedom of the Press

In breach of Armenia’s international obligations to protect freedom of expression,⁸¹ the April 2004 crackdown on the opposition brought with it repression of journalists and media outlets attempting to report on the events. Journalists were brutally attacked, and their equipment confiscated and smashed. In some cases this was done by police, and in others, apparently by civilians, with the government failing to take action against those responsible despite clear evidence as to the identity of attackers. In addition, media outlets were restricted from broadcasting during this period.

On April 5, men in civilian clothes attacked journalists at an opposition rally in Yerevan. Initially the men attempted to disrupt the rally by throwing eggs at the National Unity Party leader, Artashes Geghamian, who was addressing the crowd. Scuffles broke out, and when journalists attempted to film events, the men began to attack them.

According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, “[T]he assailants smashed the video cameras of three Armenian television stations- Kentron, Hay TV and Public Television- and the still cameras of two opposition dailies—Aravot and Haykakan Jhamanak.”⁸²

The attackers reportedly forced one journalist from the private television station Shant to hand over his videocassette with footage of the rally.⁸³ Hundreds of police present at the rally observed the attacks, but took no action. Police officials later defended the police inaction.⁸⁴ Local and international press organizations, as well as the OSCE, condemned the attack, and called for the perpetrators to be punished. Although there was reportedly evidence available as to the identity of some of the attackers, at the time of writing the authorities had not made public any action taken in relation to the attacks.⁸⁵

On the night of April 12-13, security forces brutally attacked journalists reporting on the opposition rally and the storming of opposition headquarters. Media rights groups reported that four journalists were seriously beaten that night.⁸⁶ Human Rights Watch documented the attacks on three of these journalists.⁸⁷

Levon Grigorian, a cameraman for the Russian television channel ORT, attended the rally on Marshal Baghramian Avenue on the evening of April 12 in order to report on the rally. According to Grigorian, the rally was peaceful and quiet. Then at around 2:00 a.m., security force vehicles with water cannons moved in. He told Human Rights Watch:

I began filming when they started spraying the water on people. People began throwing things, empty plastic bottles, sticks from flags. The police threw grenades at people and began to beat them. I filmed. Then people began to run. I also went with them, filming. I filmed it all. Then four people surrounded me and tried to take my camera. They couldn’t take it and they fought with me. They dragged me along the street. Then a special forces officer in an army like uniform electrocuted me with his equipment, and put gas in my face. My eyes watered. I couldn’t see. The electric shock paralyzed me. I fell down. They took my camera and telephone. They electrocuted me several times. Then about fifteen special forces officers beat me with batons. They dragged me under a tree, paralyzed, and left me there.⁸⁸

According to Grigorian, his clothes were covered in blood and torn. He suffered a broken nose, swollen arm and hand, and bruising to his whole body.⁸⁹

On the evening of April 14, the authorities returned Grigorian’s broken camera, but did not return the videocassette with the recording of the rally events.⁹⁰

The night of April 12-13, Haik Gevorkian, from the opposition daily newspaper Haikakan Zhamanak, went to photograph the opposition rally. When the security force attack began, he photographed the water cannon vehicles and police coming from the parliament grounds and attacking the protesters. Concerned for the safety of his camera and photographs, he went some twenty or thirty meters down the road, and found an empty courtyard, where he stood behind a fence and continued to photograph the events. He told Human Rights Watch:

Suddenly I saw a group of thirteen or fourteen police, headed by [a very high ranking police officer]. They were all in uniforms with batons and helmets. They came straight for me, no one else was there. [The high ranking officer] knows me well. He’s known me since 1998 through my work as a journalist. I wasn’t worried. I knew that he knew who I was, that I wasn’t a protester, but a journalist. He came up to me and took my camera. [I started to speak], but didn’t have time. All the police began to beat me with batons.... They shouted and swore. I said, ‘I’m a journalist.’ They said, ‘we know.’ I just tried to protect my head. Then they dragged me, beating me, to the parliament entrance. Someone grabbed me by the back of the neck and while the others beat me.⁹¹

Police continued to beat Gevorkian, who was lying on the ground at the entrance to the parliament while he repeatedly shouted out that he was a journalist. They put him in a police van. He no longer had his bag with his dictaphone or press card. Gevorkian’s colleague, Avetis Babajanian, from the same newspaper, was also in the van, and said that police had beaten him as well. Although Gevorkian had suffered head injuries and was covered in blood, police did nothing to help him. Only some hours later, after taking the journalists to the police station, did Gevorkian receive medical attention. He was released on the morning of April 13. He had bruising all over his body and a swollen back. Several days after the attack, he was still having difficulty walking.

Gevorkian demanded that the police return his camera and dictaphone and requested that the Procurator General’s Office open a criminal case against the police officers involved in the attack on him. By April 17, the authorities had not returned his equipment or taken any other action in relation to the attack.⁹²

Mher Ghalechian, a journalist with the opposition weekly newspaper Chorrord Ishkhanatiun (Fourth Power), was working in his office on the night of April 12-13, when he received a telephone call saying that police were arresting opposition activists at the Republic Party headquarters. He took his camera and dictaphone and went to the headquarters, where he started to photograph police detaining opposition members. Five police in camouflage uniforms attacked him and beat him all over his body with batons. He told them that he was from the press. They arrested him and put him in a prisoner transport van for six, but which held twenty-four other people. Police took his camera, dictaphone, and money. They took him to a detention center and put him in a cell with no mattresses or blankets, with no explanation as to the reason for his arrest or his legal status. They refused to grant him access to a lawyer or to make a telephone call. He was released after sixteen hours, receiving no documentation or explanation for his arrest. Police refused return his camera, dictaphone, or money.⁹³

On April 5, the Russian television channel NTV had its broadcasting suspended in Armenia. The official reason given for the suspension was because of technical problem. NTV had been broadcasting footage of the opposition protests in Yerevan. By mid-April NTV was still off the air.⁹⁴