Epress.am News from Armenia
“Because political figures put themselves in a public position, they have to expect that they will be subject to public scrutiny and criticism,” said Council of Europe (CoE) media expert Stephen Whittle, citing a declaration adopted by the CoE Committee of Ministers, addressing the difference between politicians and private individuals when it comes to being scrutinized by the press.
Whittle, speaking on media rights and responsibilities, was among a handful of experts invited to the first media freedom forum organized by the RA Human Rights Defender’s office, which took place in the Armenian town of Tsaghkadzor this weekend with the participation of over 50 journalists, media professionals and both local and international media experts.
A number of forum participants complained of the atrocious amounts being demanded by Armenian political figures as compensation in recent high-profile libel suits. Chief editor of local daily Aravot Aram Abrahamyan couldn’t figure out how second president of Armenia Robert Kocharian arrived at the figure of 6 million drams as compensation damages in a lawsuit currently in court against the daily.
“Six million drams is as much as it costs to print our paper for one month; it’s more than 50% of our expenses,” he said.
“Damages must be proportionate both to the offense and the ability to pay. They should not be used as a means of chilling speech,” said Whittle.
“The fact that defamation is no longer a criminal offense because it goes to issues of freedom of expression and democracy must not be used as an excuse for imposing harsh penalties which have the effect of driving newspapers out of business or bankrupting journalists and editors,” he said.