Navasardyan: Armenia not ripe for freedom of speech yet

In Armenia, it's not yet the time for the freedom of speech, Boris Navasardyan, President of the Yerevan Press Club, said today at the press conference dated to the World Press Freedom Day.

Making his comments on the recent report of the Freedom House on the freedom of mass media, where Armenia was ranked among non-free countries, Mr Navasardyan invited not to concentrate too much on such documents, but address the most topical problems. Thus, in his opinion, the sphere of independent information should be broadened.

"A journalist should write about what happens in reality. On air, there's no such sphere at all, while in the press it's too small," said the President of the Press Club.

Mr Navasardyan has positively assessed the fact that today - thanks to the Internet - information becomes more and more accessible. At the same time, in the opinion of the expert, unlike television and the press, the Internet is not a professional means of information dissemination.

"The mission of journalism is to orient readers in what is paramount and, accordingly, in what can be neglected; in what the truth really is. If the journalism fails with this mission, the trade disappears," Boris Navasardyan is sure. In his opinion, because of the atmosphere of lawlessness and absence of citizens' protection in Armenia, the violence over journalists will not stop in the near future.