{"id":266195,"date":"2015-06-23T18:47:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T14:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=266195"},"modified":"2015-06-23T18:48:38","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T14:48:38","slug":"%e2%80%9csafety-of-journalists-must-be-ensured-at-all-times-osce-representative-condemns-attacks-on-journalists-in-armenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/23\/%e2%80%9csafety-of-journalists-must-be-ensured-at-all-times-osce-representative-condemns-attacks-on-journalists-in-armenia.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSafety of Journalists Must Be Ensured at All Times&#8221;: OSCE Representative Condemns Attacks on Journalists in Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\tJournalists&rsquo; safety must be ensured at all times, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovi\u0107 said on Tuesday, June 23, following recent incidents and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/23\/armenian-demonstrators-beaten-chased-and-detained-police-clear-protest-site-in-yerevan-video.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">coercive actions by police<\/span><\/a> against journalists covering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/23\/armenian-police-use-excessive-force-and-special-means-against-protesters-outside-presidential-residence.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">public protest<\/span><\/a> in Yerevan against the rise in electricity rate, the OSCE official website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.osce.org\/fom\/166106\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">reports<\/span><\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&ldquo;Media has the right to cover public events and journalists must be able to report in a free and safe manner, without fear of harassment and intimidation,&rdquo; Mijatovi\u0107 said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOn 23 June journalists from various media outlets, including Radio Azatutyun (RFE\/RL), Hetq.am, Gala TV, Haykakan Zhamanak, News.am, PanArmenian.net, Epress.am, 1in.am, and ArmTimes.com, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/23\/mass-arrests-in-armenian-capital-accompanied-by-police-profanity-and-harassment-video.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">were physically attacked, mistreated, verbally assaulted and detained<\/span><\/a> by police while covering a public demonstration in Yerevan. Some journalists also had their equipment damaged or seized.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&ldquo;I call on the authorities to promptly investigate these incidents and take steps to ensure restraint on the part of law enforcement representatives toward members of the media,&rdquo; Mijatovi\u0107 said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<em>Late on Monday, after a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/?p=266054\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">three-day sit-in<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;at Freedom Square in central Yerevan, protesters&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/22\/armenian-police-block-march-towards-presidential-palace-as-citizens-march-against-hike-in-electricity-tariff.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">tried to march<\/span><\/a> toward Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan&rsquo;s office at 26 Baghramyan. However,&nbsp;hundreds of armed police officers, forming a barricade, closed the road, not allowing demonstrators to get any closer to the presidential palace. Protesters then sat in the middle of the road at the intersection of Baghramyan and Isahakyan streets, staging an impromptu sit-in outside the presidential office.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI call on the authorities to promptly investigate these incidents and take steps to ensure restraint on the part of law enforcement representatives toward members of the media,\u201d Mijatovi\u0107 said&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[32937,56330,12336,12928,23784,12350,57002],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}