YEREVAN. – Insult on social media should be fined 3 million drams, and defamation—6 million drams, in Armenia. Alen Simonyan, National Assembly (NA) vice speaker and the person behind of the bill on making respective amendments to the Civil Code, said about this during the debates—in the second and final reading—on the aforesaid law initiative at Tuesday’s session of the NA of Armenia.

Earlier, the parliament approved in the first reading the aforesaid amendments proposed by Simonyan, which provided for increasing the compensation for insult from 1 million drams to 5 million drams, and in case of defamation—from 2 million to 10 million drams.

But later, the Ministry of Justice—represented by Deputy Minister Vahe Danielyan—proposed setting to up to 3 million drams for insult, and up to 6 million drams for defamation.

"Consulting with my colleagues, as well as with the Ministry of Justice, we concluded that taking into account the inflation and the current situation in Armenia, it is necessary to lower the [respective] threshold," Simonyan said.

In his turn, Danielyan noted that the Ministry of Justice had proposed to further reduce these fines, but the proposal was not accepted. "We believe that this is an interference with freedom of speech. That is why appropriate accountability must be envisioned. As the international organizations call, this mechanism should be used with restraint," he added.

Earlier, he had proposed to limit to 2 million drams for insult, and up to 3 million drams for defamation.