On June 15 court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan started hearing the suit of Hayk Babukhanian, Chairman of the Editorial Council of “Iravunk” newspaper, versus “Khmbagir” LLC, founder of Report.am news portal, and Edik Andreasian, Report.am observer. The plaintiff demands to refute the information discrediting his honor, dignity and business reputation, as contained in the piece by Edik Andreasian “When Forcing the Unpromptable” (stored on Report.am on March 25, 2011) and in the readers’ comments on that piece. Hayk Babukhanian also demands to compensate the moral damage of 1 million AMD (more than $ 2,500), cover the court expenses, including the state duty for filing the court of 8,000 AMD and the attorney services fee (meanwhile, the plaintiff did not specified the sum). Together with the suit – submitted to consideration on April 22, 2011 – a petition was made requesting to prohibit the respondent to diffuse any information on another case which is presently being considered by the same court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan. This regards a similar suit on protecting the honor, dignity and business reputation, lodged by Hayk Babukhanian and founder of “Iravunk” newspaper, “Iravunk Media” LLC, versus Report.am founder, “Khmbagir” LLC, and news portal’s observer Edik Andreasian. The subject matter of the case is the September 1, 2010 piece of Report.am “The Right of ‘Iravunk’ on the Edge of Hayk Babukhanian’s Sword”. The plaintiffs demanded to refute the discrediting information, as contained in the piece, as well as exact from each respondent 3 million AMD (about $ 8,000) as moral damage compensation, caused by libel and insult. (This suit was submitted to consideration on November 22, 2010; the hearings started on January 27, 2011; for now four preliminary sessions were held and the next one will be on July 1.) The motion on banning the diffusion of any information regarding the case was secured, and Report.am removed all the respective materials from its website.
At the June 15 session the parties precised the suit demands. The next session will take place on June 30.
