YEREVAN. – The most pressure on the Armenian media occurred in 2013, which was due to the presidential and the local government elections.   

The Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Speech (CPFS) Chairman Ashot Melikyan noted the above-said at a press conference on Thursday.

Melikyan presented the CPFS 2013 report on the freedom of speech and the journalists’ and media rights in Armenia.  

He noted that a candidate had used violence against a journalist even during the elections for the capital city Yerevan Council of Elders.   

Eight cases of obstruction were recorded. In addition three cases of physical violence were registered during the activists’ movement.

Melikyan also stressed that ten cases of violence were observed in 2013, against the four cases in 2012. 

The pressures against the journalists and the media totaled 57 in 2013, whereas 37 in 2012.

But the right to receive and disseminate information was violated ten times in 2013, against the 23 cases in 2012. 

The CPFS head added, however, that the actual number of the violations is much greater than what was recorded.   

In Ashot Melikyan’s words, last year was unprecedented in Armenia also by the fact that there was lot more court cases against the media.