PACE issued report on media freedom in Europe. On the whole, the level of freedom of media suffers “setback”, the PACE website reads. NEWS.am quotes the passages of the report on media freedom in Armenia.

“Harassment of journalists and direct controls on the media intensified around the time of the February 2008 presidential election. Several journalists including photographer Gagik Shamshyan were injured in assaults by police during protests after the election.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that a reporter, Lusine Barseghan, was assaulted while attempting to document abuses at a Yerevan polling station. During a three-week long State of Emergency all independent reporting was banned. In March 2007 similar government controls on the media were imposed during a temporary State of Emergency under the previous administration.

Several other journalists suffered assaults in 2008, including Hrach Melkumyan, Yerevan bureau chief of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Edik Baghdasaryan, editor of the online news magazine Hetq and chair of Armenian Association of Investigative Journalists.

On 30 April 2009 Argishti Kivirian, editor of the online news website Armenia Today, was attacked by three unknown assailants outside his home in Yerevan, leaving him with severe injuries. He was reportedly beaten on his head and body with clubs or wooden poles and one of the attackers also fired gunshots which caused no injuries. Colleagues said they believed the attack was related to his work.”