At September 25 press conference, the member of the RA NA My Step Faction Gayane Abrahamyan and the member of the Bright Armenia Faction Anna Kostanyan presented details on their participation in the International Parliamentary Seminar on Media Freedom in London on September 9-11 and the participation of the member of the Prosperous Armenia Shake Isayan there.
Issues on the journalists’ security and the dissemination of the fake news were discussed in the Seminar, according to Gayane Abrahamyan, which are qualified by the whole world as problems directed against national and state security and democracy.
During the event the issue of the journalists’ protection in the world was considered concerning: it was underlined that the violence towards the latter was doubled in 2018. As a most horrible case – Hrant Dink’s murder was voiced, being qualified it not as impeding the journalist’s work and a murder directed against the journalist, but as a national discrimination.
According to the speaker, it has been noted in the Seminar that there are many jailed journalists in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Hungary and Russia.
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As to Gayane Abrahamyan, the UK Bureau Director of the Reporters without Borders organisation Rebecca Vincent stressed that Armenia recorded considerable progress in the sphere of media and freedom of speech.
There were discussions on the issues of fake news dissemination.
Anna Kostanyan presented the ideology of the event – that is: the delegations represented by 13 countries should initiate the creation of draft law aimed at the protection of the journalists’ rights.
The RA NA deputies had separate meetings-discussions also with the parliamentarians of different countries, where a number of agreements were reached. As Anna Kostanyan informed, during the meeting with the representatives of the legislative body of Great Britain the item of restoring Yerevan-London direct flight was discussed. In this context the British MPs highlighted the necessity of having direct flight in terms of the development of cooperation in the sphere of tourism and the cultural exchange of experience between the two countries.
Anna Kostanyan considered important Armenia’s joining the platform of Index on Censorship created by Europe.
NA RA