The journalist of “Aravot” daily Anna Israelian was not allowed to attend the ordinary session of the Human Rights Commission at the RA President. The Chairman of the Commission Parouir Hayrikian said that he had personally given the order and assumed complete responsibility for the incident. The well-known human rights defender who is at the same time a leader of a political party – “Self-Determination” Union – motivated his decision by the fact that “Aravot” had published information, which is invalid and discrediting to him.
Notably, this step of Mr. Hayrikian caused extremely negative response not only from the opposition press, but also from the media, which are quite loyal to the authorities. A member of the Commission above, Marina Grigorian, stated in her piece in “Golos Armenii” newspaper that “a violation of several human rights norms was made at once: freedom of speech, access to information and the right of citizens to receive this information”.
As to the publication that offended Mr. Hayrikian, the dispute of its validity, as experts note, could have been solved in a legal manner, namely in the court. For some reasons the human rights defender chose to act differently…
