On November 11 at “Irates De-Facto” press club the press conference of the Chairman of the Writers Union of Armenia Levon Ananian and the Chairman of the Painters Union of Armenia Karen Aghamian took place. At the meeting with journalists the participants particularly discussed the issue of the court litigation between the heads of creative unions and “Hayots Ashkhar” daily.
On June 10 the Chairman of the Writers Union of Armenia Levon Ananian, the Chairman of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Armenia Robert Amirkhanian, the Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia Ruben Gevorgiants, the Chairman of the Painters Union of Armenia Karen Aghamian and the Chairman of the Union of Theatre Workers of Armenia Hakob Ghazanchian filed a suit at the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan versus the “Editorial Office of ‘Hayots Ashkhar’ Daily” LLC, founder of “Hayots Ashkhar”, and the correspondent of the newspaper Kima Eghiazarian. The reason of the suit became the piece of Kima Eghiazarian “To Sell, To Sell up To the End”, published in “Hayots Ashkhar” on April 27, 2010. The plaintiffs demanded to refute the information, as contained in the piece, discrediting their honor, dignity and business reputation. They also demanded to compensate their court costs in the amount of 1 million 500 thousand AMD (about $ 4,100). On August 21, 2010 “Hayots Ashkhar” published a refutation, which was assessed by the heads of creative associations as insufficient.
The hearings on the case started on October 14, the judgment was released on October 29, 2010. The court secured the demands of the suit partially, obliging “Hayots Ashkhar” to publish the refutation text, as contained in the operative part of the court decision. Besides, the newspaper must compensate the court costs of the plaintiffs in the amount of 300,000 AMD.
