In Armenia, media people dissatisfied with new accreditation procedure for elections

The Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan has sent a request to the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) asking to clarify the new procedure for accreditation of journalists. Armenian media have already expressed dissatisfaction with the new accreditation procedure established by the CEC.

The CEC has passed a decision on accreditation of journalists who want to cover the elections to the National Assembly of Armenia upcoming on May 6. According to this decision, only those journalists may be accredited by the CEC, who do not spread false information about the activities of election commissions and officials. Moreover, these facts must be confirmed by the court decision.

To get accredited, a journalist should also have no convictions for intentional crimes, unless the conviction has been cancelled or withdrawn in the order prescribed by the law. Only those journalists will be accredited, who were not recognized incapable or having "limited capability" in the judicial order.

The CEC's decision contradicts to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and threatens the freedom of expression – this is a preliminary evaluation of the Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan.

"The new procedure is an unprecedented phenomenon, it's just a shame. Such claims have never been moved; the decision of the CEC is a combination of censorship and provisions directed against the personal freedom against," Armine Oganyan, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Graparak", gave her comment on the recent CEC's decision.

The absurdity and unprecedented character of the new accreditation procedure was emphasized also by Vaagn Ovakimyan, the observer of the newspaper "Aikakan Zhamanak" (Armenian Time). "The decision was taken to ensure that at any time any journalist can be deprived of his or her accreditation; thus, the CEC takes over the functions of the court," he said.