Epress.am News from Armenia
GALA TV General Director Karine Harutyunyan sent an open letter to media that was issued to OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic, asking her to monitor the protection of the rights of imprisoned journalist, Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times’) chief editor Nikol Pashinyan.
“The 7th South Caucasus Media Conference took place in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi; I had the opportunity to listen to your call to the South Caucasus countries’ presidents, which best reflected your principled position on the issues of freedom of the press. I would like to call your attention to the fact that during those days, when the aforementioned conference was taking place in Tbilisi, journalist, Haykakan Jamanak daily chief editor Nikol Pashinyan, kept in Kosh penitentiary, was being subject to violence,” reads the open letter.
Harutyunyan notes that the attack on Pashinyan resulted in a public outcry.
“We are deeply concerned with the journalist’s fate and I assure you that concerned is every citizen that thinks and moves freely, thousands of representatives from civil society and news agencies. We expect that in the issue of protecting the rights of the jailed journalist, you will once again come forward with the same determination and persistence,” writes the GALA TV general director.
Recall that Pashinyan, 35, was among several prominent opposition figures who went into hiding in March 2008 following a government crackdown on supporters of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian demanding a re-run of a disputed presidential election. He surrendered to the authorities in July 2009 and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of stirring up “mass disturbances” in Yerevan that left ten people dead.
The oppositionist will have to serve only half of the prison sentence because of a general amnesty declared by the authorities in June 2009. Both he and Ter-Petrossian’s Armenian National Congress consider the case politically motivated.