STATEMENT
Regarding the denial of accreditation to News.am Sport correspondent Vera Martirosyan by Football Federation of Armenia
News.am Sport correspondent Vera Martirosyan was denied accreditation for the June 4 and June 10, 2017 matches of the Armenian National Football Team.
In response to the journalist’s question on the reason for the denial of accreditation, Hayk Karapetyan, Head of Press Office of Football Federation of Armenia, said that it had been done upon the instruction of FFA President Ruben Hayrapetyan. It can be assumed that the FFA President does not like the way Vera Martirosyan writes about the Armenian football.
Whereas, Vera Martirosyan has been working in the field of sports journalism for years, and her publications stand out for creative and professional approach towards the topics covered. Thus, in 2015 Vera Martirosyan received the Annual Award of Yerevan Press Club for “fresh and comprehensive view of the world of sport”. In other words, by denying her accreditation, FFA deprived the News.am large audience of the journalist’s impressive and uncommon coverage of the matches of the National Team.
Given the fact that it is not the first case of this kind, we, the undersigned, state that the denial of accreditation upon personal antipathy is unacceptable.
We demand from the leadership of Football Federation of Armenia to eliminate in the future such limitations imposed on the activities of journalists.
YEREVAN PRESS CLUB
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
MEDIA INITIATIVES CENTER
MEDIA DIVERSITY INSTITUTE-ARMENIA
“ASPAREZ” JOURNALISTS’ CLUB
PUBLIC JOURNALISM CLUB
“JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS”
“JOURNALISTS FOR THE FUTURE”
