Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andresyan condemns the use of violence against journalists and interference with their professional activities.
The ombudsman says he follows the investigation of the incident that involves Marine Khachatryan, a journalist working for A1+ Company.
After the petition of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Marine Khachatryan was recognized as an aggrieved party.
“We follow the investigation and we would like the dispute to be solved in a fair way. We do not want to see a battle between the two sides,” said Mr Andreasyan.
In November, Prosecutor General’s Office overturned the decision of the Special Investigative Service to dismiss the case filed for obstructing the professional activities of Marine Khachatryan.
On September 9, after members of the Hakaharvats (Counterblow) street art group hung a banner reading “Hello Rob” (Rob referring to Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan) on the National Assembly’s main gate, the chief of the NA security Karen Hayrapetyan came out and tore down the banner. Then he hit A1+’s journalist Marine Khachatryan, who was covering the incident, on the arm, causing her to drop her recording device – iPad – to the ground.
A case was filed with the SIS regarding the incident but the latter quashed criminal proceedings against the security official who used violence against the journalist.
Hayrapetyan later said that Khachatryan wasn’t wearing her press badge and he assumed she was a member of the Counterblow group.
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