On February 23, around 23.00 in Vanadzor an incident occurred with Executive
Director of “Lori” TV company Narine Avetisian. According to the journalist,
in a food store, where she dropped by on her way home, the owner of two lines
of the city mini buses approached her and started insulting and threatening
Narine Avetisian, demanding “to stop counting his money or she will end badly”.
The discontent of the entrepreneur was caused by the topic, constantly raised
by Narine Avetisian on the air of “Lori” TV, related to ungrounded raising of
city transportation fees. The new tariffs for the use of buses and mini buses
were introduced in Vanadzor since January 1, 2006 and with a violation of the
due requirements, as Narine Avetisian insists. The participants in the TV discussions
on this urgent issue for the Vanadzor residents included both independent experts
and representatives of city municipality. At the same time, their host, Narine
Avetisian, was constantly and unsuccessfully inviting the owners of the up-grown
mini bus routes to express their position on air. One of the programs, as Narine
Avetisian said, presented the calculations of the net profit gained as a result
of price rises for the city transportation. Possibly, this is what inspired
fury of the mentioned owner of mini bus routes, who was publicly threatening
the journalist “for the attempt to get into his pocket”.
After the incident at the store, Narine Avetisian decided to return to the
editorial office. She said that a car, with the entrepreneur in it, had followed
her all the way. The same car, as Narine Avetisian noted, had long circulated
around the TV company building. The journalists had to wait it over at the office
until 2 a.m. before she could go home.
Vanadzor Press Club and Vanadzor Office of Helsinki Citizens Assembly made
a joint statement, condemning persecution of the journalist and demanding punishment
for those responsible.
As Narine Avetisian said, investigation of the incident started at the city
police department of Vanadzor.
