Tigran Urikhanyan, the press secretary of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), brought a lawsuit against Edgar Barseghyan, since he thinks that the demotivator he has prepared harms his honor, dignity and business reputation. As compensation, the MP demands that blogger apologize and pay one million drams in damages, pay the attorney’s fee in the amount of 500 thousand drams and court costs in the amount of 30 000 drams, as well as remove material harming Urikhanyan’s honor and dignity from www.demotivator.am and www.blognews.am websites and social networks. The reason for Urikhanyan’s lawsuit is the demotivator captioned “The most stylish politician of the year,” where the MP is depicted as a woman. It was dedicated to Tigran Urikhanyan’s award for the Most Stylish Politician won in the Style Screen competition.
E. Barseghyan said the following with regard to T. Urikhanyan’s lawsuit against him: “Yes, I think that it is not appropriate for a serious man, whose professional activities are not related to his physical appearance – for example, a model or an actor – to show his ‘achievements’ in that field to the whole world. Perhaps, I might bring a lawsuit against him too, since the photos uploaded on his website harm my honor, dignity and business reputation, as a citizen of the Republic of Armenia. I think that an Armenian MP should be engaged in a bit different activities and should have pride for something other than taking photos with a blonde or a Jeep.”
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T. Urikhanyan stated, in his turn, that if that wasn’t an insult, in the blogger’s opinion, then, he would see his and his close relatives’ faces on bodies of half-naked mannequins in different places. www.aravot.am inquired of Boris Navasardyan, the head of Yerevan Press Club, whether the blogger’s demotivator as a media production contradicts journalistic ethics and whether it was offensive or not. He said in this regard: “It is a subjective thing whether one is offended or not. If the person feels offended, he certainly has a right to file a petition in court. It is a legal issue. I wouldn’t take on the responsibility of making assessment whether the lawsuit is grounded or not. I would leave it to the court to decide. As for compliance with journalistic ethics, since what the blogger prepared is a way of criticizing a certain phenomenon, which has social significance, using that method, format or trick by a blogger is justified. The problem is whether he went beyond the limit, when it becomes an insult, or not. It is very difficult to determine that limit. There are journalistic norms what elements shouldn’t be used in a collage, because they may insult, there are rules. If the body considering issues of journalistic ethics received Urikhanyan’s complaint, it would convene a meeting of experts and would answer that question. Since he has chosen the option of filing a petition in court, I would leave the decision to the court. We can give a legal and ethical answer, only after we know all the merits of the case, find out the plaintiff’s arguments and compare the facts. We will talk about that issue at a meeting of the Information Disputes Council, when all the facts are presented to the court.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
