On July 8 at court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan finished the preliminary hearings on the suit of the construction company “Glendale Hills” versus founder and publisher of “Zhamanak” daily, “Skizb Media Kentron” LLC. The reason of the suit was the piece “‘Glendale Hills’ Offered 1000 Dollars for Silence”, published in “Zhamanak” on August 26, 2010. The article informed that in August 2010 there were collapses in a newly built house in Gyumri, and the building contractor, “Glendale Hills”, offered the tenants a financial compensation, promised to restore the damages, if only the media did not know about the incident. The suit was submitted to consideration on September 24, 2010; the preliminary sessions started since November 26, 2010. “Glendale Hills” demanded from “Zhamanak” founder to refute the information as contained in the piece that discredit its business reputation, compensate the damage caused by defamation of 2 million AMD (about $ 5400) and cover the court expenses of 500,000 AMD.
At the session of July 8 the advocate of the respondent, Nikolay Baghdasarian, proposed to take the question to arbitration or consider it in a non-judicial procedure. Nikolay Baghdasarian also informed YPC that during the preliminary hearings he had made a petition to suspend court proceedings – in order to give the “Zhamanak” founder a possibility of addressing the RA Constitutional Court on the issue of constitutionality of some provisions of Article 1087.1 (“Order and Conditions of Compensation of Damage to the Honor, Dignity or Business Reputation”) of RA Civil Code. However the court put off the consideration of the petition.
The core hearings are appointed on September 5.
