On December 13 at the court of primary jurisdiction of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun
communities of Yerevan started hearing the suit of the Armenian National Movement
(ANM) versus ”Shant” TV company. The plaintiff demands to oblige the TV company
to refute the information aired on November 30, 2007 on the evening “Horizon”
newscast of the “Shant” TV company that the party find discrediting. The newscast
reported an anonymous phone call to the newsroom with threats to explode the
TV company if it aired libel on the First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian
once again. The information had also a comment from the program host: “We condemn
any terrorist step, any threat – whether from ANM or any other political force.”
In the opinion of the plaintiff, in “Shant” communication the anonymous phone
threat was unduly linked to ANM, which discredits the reputation and dignity
of the party and its members.
At the session of December 13 the respondent filed a motion to involve “Pakagits”
newspaper in the proceedings, as a third party. The motion was supported by
the circumstance that the communication of “Shant” had no elements, discrediting
to ANM, while “Pakagits” that published this information the next day, on November
31, with a reference to the TV company, had modified it. In particular, the
piece in “Pakagits” was headlined “ANM Threaten”, and it thus stressed
that “Shant” was speaking about threats to the TV company made by ANM specifically.
The court secured the motion of “Shant” and appointed the following session
for December 24.
N.B. Dear readers, please note that the YPC Weekly
Newsletter will next be issued in January 2007. Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year!
