On March 5 – the day of RA presidential elections – again, similarly to the first round on February 19 (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 15-21, 2003) a number of violations of the rights of journalists covering the voting process were recorded.
Thus, on several polling stations the commission members (and sometimes even unknown persons) impeded the work of the journalists of "Ayb-Feh" daily and the homonymous news agency of "A1+" TV company: in particular, they were prohibited to make shootings, to interview the proxies of the opposition candidate, to be present at the vote count. The representative of a precinct electoral committee refused to provide information to the correspondent of "Noyan Tapan" news agency.
When covering the pre-election campaign for the second round, the TV pieces prepared by the correspondent of "Epikentron" newscast of "Kentron" private TV company Nane Ajemian displeased the campaign staff of the incumbent President Robert Kocharian. After the phone call to the TV company Nane Ajemian was offered to take time off till the end of the election campaign. This was stated by the journalist herself in an interview to "Aniv" program produced by Internews Armenia. Previously, since February 24 the broadcasts of "Point of View" program of the same company were stopped. However, its author Gevorg Altunian denied the media allegations that the program was closed at the insistence of the authorities, saying the interruption was due to his illness and his request to "Kentron" management to give him time off.
