According to the website Totalfootball.am, on May 23 the FFA Executive Committee held a session, the first section of which concerned the incident between the chief trainer of “Ararat”  football club Arkady Andreasyan and photojournalist Ashot Arushanyan from Totalfootball.am. The FFA Disciplinary Committee had suggested the Executive Committee to recognize the club’s trainer Arkady Andreasyan as an undesired person in football.

FFA president Ruben Hayrapetyan asked the Executive Committee not to recognize Andreasyan as an undesired person in football and get limited to a warning, as well as to leave in force his disqualification from 10 games and the financial penalty up to 250,000 drams (about $670). The Committee unanimously accepted the proposal.

To recall, on April 23 during the half-time of a football match of the Armenian Premier League “Ararat” – “Pyunik” photojournalist Ashot Arushanyan was beaten by Arkady Andreasyan and his mates.

Source: Totalfootball.am 

Translated by JNews.am

Read More »Arkady Andreasyan Not Recognized as an Undesired Person in Football

On June 13, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan under the chairmanship of Judge Hafiz Nasibov will consider the appeal of the journalist Eynullah Fatullayev. The journalist’s lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, told Turan about this.

According to him, the appeal was filed in connection with the decision of the Baku Court of Appeals on January 25 to uphold the verdict of the Garadagh district court, which sentenced Fatullayev to 30 months in prison on charges of drug possession.

Fatullayev was convicted twice in 2007 to a total of eight and a half years in prison. In April 2010, the Strasbourg Court declared a violation of his rights and ordered his release. In November, the Supreme Court overturned the verdicts of 2007, but the journalist remained in prison on a new charge of drug possession brought against him in late 2009 Amnesty International considers Fatullayev a “prisoner of conscience”.

Source: http://www.contact.az

Read More »June 13 Supreme Court to Consider Journalist Fatullayev’s Appeal

Journalists are being detained, blocked from recording, insulted and journalistic materials are being taken away from at the protest rallies started in Tbilisi and Batumi May 21.

May 22 Netgazeti journalist Tamaz Kupreishvili was hit in the stomach with a flag-stick by Anzor Bitsadze, son of the former chairman of Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze when he was trying to get a comment from Burjanadze on the incident taken place in front of the public broadcaster building.

“Nino Burjanadze told me to go and interview policemen and instantly her son hit me in the stomach with a flag-stick, although it did not hurt,” Tamaz Kupreishvili told Media.ge.

According to him, Burjanadze’s press service has contacted him saying that Anzor Bitsadze wants to meet him and apologize for the “misunderstanding” that has taken place.

News agency Interpressnews reported May 22 that an unidentified person in civil clothing took away the video-recording of the clash that took place at the Kostava Avenue in front of the public broadcaster building from their correspondent.  

Read More »Georgia: Violence Against Journalists

Dunja Mijatović, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media, has said recent change in the Press Law and Internet restrictions risk to further limit free expression and access to information in Turkey. 

 In a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Mijatović expressed concern over the May 2 decision of the Constitutional Court to amend the Press Law allowing prosecutors to file criminal cases against journalists years after their articles are published. The annulled Article 26 of the law limited prosecution to two months from the date of publication in a daily newspaper or four months in other print media.

“If unchanged, this ruling will mean journalists expressing critical views will work under the permanent threat of criminal lawsuits being initiated against them,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

In addition, Mijatović is concerned that the government plans to introduce mandatory content filtering for all Internet users in Turkey. Based on a regulation of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK), as of Aug. 22, Internet users will have to choose among one of four Internet filtering packages. All the packages will block certain websites, and the filtering criteria will not be made public.

Read More »OSCE says Press Law changes limit media freedom in Turkey

Journalists’ work in the RA Parliament is becoming more and more dangerous because of some MPs’ behavior. MP Sashik Sargsyan who considers himself untouchable as president Serzh Sargsyan’s brother, attacked journalist Marine Kharatyan for the “Hraparak” daily. Meeting the MP in the corridor of the National Assembly the journalist approached him and asked whether he would run for the upcoming parliamentary elections or not. Sargsyan violently took the recorder and turned it off by pressing all the buttons.

The journalist tried to explain that it is supposed that an MP should be asked questions in parliament, however Sargsyan started to insult and swear her. When the journalist told him to behave properly, Sargsyan attempted to attack her in the corridor of parliament near the library.  

An NA employee who witnessed the event managed to prevent the attack. Galust Sahakyan, the incumbent ARP faction leader, didn’t even try to chide his faction member attacking the journalist, perhaps fearing to tell a sour word about Serzh Sargsyan’s brother.

Instead, when the journalist resented, Sahakyan turned to her and told indifferently that if the man does not want to be asked questions, don’t do it. The reporter recorded the last part of the swearing, which is going to send the presidential office.

Read More »Hraparak Daily: “Sashik Sargsyan Attacked Our Journalist”

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic believes that Azerbaijan has witnessed positive changes in the media over the past year and a half.

“Changes for the better have been seen in the Azerbaijani media in the past one and a half years. However, the real work will begin only after the country adopts the defamation law”, Mijatovic said at a press conference after a four-day visit to Azerbaijan.

“I welcome President Ilham Aliyev’s views on freedom of access to the Internet. Such a position is not witnessed in all OSCE countries,” Mijatovic said.

During the visit, Mijatovic held meetings with the authorities and representatives of the Azerbaijani media.

After the departure, Mijatovic intends to continue to monitor the processes occurring in this sphere in Azerbaijan.

“The main purpose of defamation law is to avoid the imprisonment of journalists, as well as make the fines that are imposed on the media more proportionate,” said Mijatovic.

“I expect that the Parliament of Azerbaijan will conduct intensive discussions over the bill and wait for support of this bill from the society,” she said.

The draft law on defamation was developed with the support of the OSCE Office in Baku in 2005. The group of developers of the bill included MPs, representatives of media institutions and lawyers.

Read More »OSCE: Azerbaijan records positive changes in media