YEREVAN. – The Office of the Ombudsman of Armenia studies the situation based on publications in the media. Both the publication-related issues and the media's explanation have been studied.

According to the Ombudsman press office, they took into account Investigative Committee's statement that the search conducted at the Yerevan.Today editorial office has nothing to do with journalistic activities of the media. Nevertheless, considering that this is a search in the editorial office, the ombudsman's office demanded an explanation from the prosecuting authority.

As reported earlier, the law enforcement agencies of Armenia are conducting a search at the office of Yerevan.Today news website as well as at the house of its chief editor, since Monday morning.

The office of this website informed that the search is conducted on the grounds that, allegedly, the website had publicized the wiretapped recording of the telephonic conversation between the National Security Service director and the Special Investigation Service head two days earlier than the other media outlets.

“But that’s not the case,” they stressed from the office. “Yerevan.Today publicized the recording of the conversation in the same hours as the rest of the Armenian media outlets.”

They added that the situation is the same at the office of Hraparak (Square) newspaper too.

The first to raise this matter was Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times) newspaper, which had written that Yerevan.Today and Hraparak had publicized the well-known recording before the other media outlets. To note, the chief editor of Haykakan Zhamanak is Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.