Epress.am News from Armenia
A group of Armenian journalists staged a protest Tuesday outside the National Assembly building in Yerevan demanding that the NA's Ethics Committee hold Mher Sedrakyan, a parliamentarian from the ruling Republican Party, responsible for swearing at and insulting reporter Paylak Fahradyan.
Several opposition lawmakers who joined the rally also condemned Sedrakyan's behaviour. Heritage faction leader Zaruhi Postanjyan, namely, said that these protest actions might not help them reach their goal of eliminating “people such as Mher Sedrakyan” from the parliament, but they would sure serve as a means of restraining other MPs.
Armenian National Congress (ANC) faction secretary Aram Manukyan, in turn, urged the protesting reporters not to rely on other people to fight for their rights: “You should stand for your own rights. They'll destroy you if you show weakness. If you are a team, no lawmaker living by thug or street rules will be able to hurt you.”
Nikol Pashinyan, another MP from the ANC faction, also came out to support the protesters. “The work of journalists is related to the society's right to information. And we have to understand that the questions they ask, albeit not always pleasing to the politicians, are ones that interest the public. We need a society that recognizes and respects not only their own, but also the rights of others,” Pashinyan stated.
Video in Armenian: