On March 7 at the court of primary jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan the hearings of the suit of Central Bank of Armenia versus "Aravot" daily were held. On February 11, 2003 "Aravot" published the article by Armen Khachatrian "For the Information of Incorruptible Officials", telling about the misconduct of the CB officials. On February 17 CB addressed the newspaper demanding to refute the information as invalid and unverified. In reply, on February 20 a piece titled "CB Gives no Arguments Still" appeared in "Aravot", where the edition insisted on the data previously published.
On the court session the attorney of RA Central Bank filed a demand to oblige the daily to publish a refutation of both pieces.
The next session on the case is scheduled for March 19.
Meanwhile, on March 14 "Aravot" informed that on March 12 the edition received the notification of the RA Commercial Court of another suit filed versus the daily – this time by "Ardshinbank". The bank demands to oblige "Aravot" to pay ,000 as compensation for the damage caused by a number of articles published by the newspaper about 10 months ago. The subject of publications was the misconduct of the temporary management of "Ardshinbank", appointed by the RA Central Bank.
The first session on the case will be held on March 27.
As the Chief Editor of "Aravot" Aram Abrahamian told Yerevan Press Club, they qualify these two suits as an attempt of Central Bank to harass the daily.
