The Information Disputes Council of Armenia (IDC) has published their conclusion concerning the case of violence used by the police against journalists at Khorenatsi str. According to the IDC conclusion, the journalists were targeted.
“The study and analysis of collected data allows conclude that using violence against journalists and damaging their equipment was a result of targeted action by the police not negligence,” the IDC conclusion reads.
In particular, it is noted that although the police warned the journalists to step aside, presumably for not interfering in their professional activities, before using force and special means against the demonstrators in Sari Tagh neighbourhood, however, the police physically assaulted those cameramen, who continued to film the attacks against demonstrators. Even when 1in.am cameraman Davit Harutyunyan stopped shooting, unidentified people in civilian clothes “who were clearly following the police instructions” attacked him and cut off the PRESS badge. “Obviously, the goal of police officers in civilian clothes was to interfere with the shooting of the scene of dispersing the crowd, which, they succeeded to do.”
The IDC also noted that it should be considered that the criminal case has been initiated by the RA Prosecutor General under the Article164 (prevention of journalists professional legal actions) and that in practice, investigative and judicial bodies tend to interpret the Article 164 as exclusively intentional crime.
“Thus, the analysis of the facts show that the police actions were targeted at the professional activities of the journalists and the cameramen,” the conclusion reads.
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Besides, according to the conclusion, the facts prove that the police actions were not only targeted at preventing the professional activities of the journalists, but also punishing them.
“According to the facts, both in Sari Tagh and Khorenatsi str, even after preventing the professional activities of the journalists and fulfilling their aim, the police officers continued subjecting the journalists to violence, hitting them with fists, feet and wooden batons. They hit them on the head, arms, feet and the stomach, so that the victims stopped resisting and only tried to cover their heads.
Moreover, in many cases, a journalist was simultaneously attacked by several policemen,” it is noted.
The IDC writes that using force against a helpless person, who is no threat, means only one thing that the police officers were intentionally attacking them to humiliate.
It should be noted that members of the IDC are lawyer Ara Ghazaryan, independent media expert Manana Aslamazyan, Head of Yerevan Press Club, Boris Navasardyan, editor-in-chief of “Aravot” daily, Aram Abrahamyan and Producer of Media Initiatives Centre, Gegham Vardanyan.
This expert opinion has been developed with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, within the framework of the project “Supporting extra-judicial solution of media disputes in Armenia”. The views and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OSCE or of the OSCE Office in Yerevan