Armenian Constitutional Court orders courts to take into account media's material status at sentencing

This evening, at the lawsuit filed by Karen Andreasyan, the human rights defender, the Armenian Constitutional Court, issued a decision to order courts to estimate material situation of media in determining the amount of compensation on complaints against defamation.

The Armenian Constitutional Court also dismissed the Andreasyan's lawsuit to declare Article 1087.1 of the Law "On introducing changes and amendments to the Civil Code" nonconforming to the Constitution.

Let us remind you that in last May the National Assembly of Armenia adopted the Law "On introducing changes and amendments to the Civil Code", specifying that an individual or a legal entity, charged of abuse or defamation, should be subjected not to criminal, but to administrative punishment, stipulating large financial penalties.

According to Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the above Article contributed to the fact that during a year 30 lawsuits relating to abuse and defamation had been filed against the media.

Dunja Mijatovic expressed her concern about the increasing number of lawsuits for abuse and defamation against the media. She claimed that the compensation to be demanded in connection with civil lawsuits for these articles should be proportional to the caused damage and should not cause the edition's closure.

The Constitutional Court dismissed the claim of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and, at the same time, stated in its decision that "negative assessment of any facts should not cause demand of material compensation for the moral damage."

Furthermore, the Constitutional Court ruled that a material compensation should not be the primary and the basic measure. According to the Constitutional Court, in such cases, the edition's apology or refutation is sufficient to solve the case.

"At ruling a decision, courts should take into account defendant's income to avoid assignment of excessively high amount, which could have a decisive impact on the future activities of edition," the decision of the Constitutional Court emphasizes.