On November 17 RA National Assembly approved the Draft Law “On the Amendments and Supplements to the RA Criminal Code” in the first hearing. The authors of the draft, NA deputies from “Orinats Yerkir” faction Hovhannes Margarian and Heghineh Bisharian, presented an initiative on supplementing Article 164 (“Impeding the Legitimate Professional Activities of a Journalist”) of RA Criminal Code. Namely, it was suggested that impeding the legitimate professional activities of a journalist or forcing the journalist, while on professional duties, to disseminate or not the information, attended by either use of violence, or a threat of its use, dangerous for the life and health of the journalist or a member of his/her family, is to be sentenced by a fine of 250-450 minimum wage, or correctional labor for not more than 2 years, or by imprisonment for not more than 5 years.
The initiative is stipulated by a number of facts indicative of the scarce degree of protection of journalists.
