On July 4 RA Civil Court of Appeal ended hearing the suit of “Ijevan Road Construction and Exploitation” CJSC versus the founder of “Ijevan” TV channel, “Ijevan Studio” LLC, and its correspondent (now – Director) Naira Khachikian.
On December 12, 2011 Ijevan court of general jurisdiction of Tavush region took into consideration the suit of the road construction company, which had contested the plot, criticizing its actions. The piece was aired on “Ijevan” TV on June 21, 2011 (it was also broadcast by Second Armenian TV Channel and “Yerkir Media” TV channel). The plaintiff demanded to bring apologies, pay off 3 mln 264 thousand AMD (about $ 8,600), from which 3 mln for compensating the moral damage, 200,000 – attorneys’ services and 64,000 – state duty for filing the court (see details in “On Freedom of Speech in Armenia” Yerevan Press Club report for 2011 at https://ypc.am/about_freedom/in/eng). On April 27, 2012 court of general jurisdiction of Tavush region secured the suit, obliging the respondent to compensate the damage, caused by libel in the amount of 50,000 AMD, pay off the plaintiff’s expenses for attorney services of 20,000 and the state duty of 1,500 AMD. On May 23 the road construction company lodged an appeal against this ruling.
At the July 4 session the Civil Court of Appeal abolished the ruling of the court of general jurisdiction and resolved to return the case to reconsideration to the same court instance.
