On May 16 in RA National Assembly an incident happened between Marineh Kharatian, correspondent of “Hraparak” daily, and MP from Republican Party of Armenia faction, brother of RA President Serzh Sargsian, Alexander Sargsian. As “Hraparak” informed YPC, the journalist inquired whether the deputy would run in the upcoming 2012 parliamentary elections. The question annoyed Alexander Sargsian: he grabbed the recorder from the hands of the journalist, shut it off and started swearing. According to “Hraparak”, if it wasn’t the interference of the employee of the NA administration, Alexander Sargsian would start laying hands. Marineh Kharatian was able to record a part of the conversation with the MP, and she intends to send the record to RA President’s Office.
Armineh Ohanian, Chief Editor of “Hraparak” daily, noted that the newspaper will not go into law: in a situation, when the security of a journalist is endangered just because he/she gives a question, the court cannot solve the issue. The head of “Hraparak” emphasized that this is not the first case of impeding the professional activities of a media representative at parliament, and the journalistic community must take measures for making fundamental changes in this situation. For example, boycotting the MP by media, or on the contrary – purposely throwing questions on him, considers Armineh Ohanian.
