In October of 2012, Armenia’s Police Depart organized a three day conference in the resort town of Tzaghkadzor for its employees and reporters.

“Please help us in doing our work. We are your brothers, not outsiders,” entreated Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan in his sales pitch to the gather members of the press.

Ever since Armenian independence 22 years ago there have been countless attacks and violations against reporters and sadly, most have gone unresolved. The culprits have never been punished for their deeds. And the few cases that have been exposed and made it to trial in the courts, can only be said to have been “exposed” with serious reservations.

Vladimir Gasparyan has inherited a vast legacy of such unexposed cases. “Have you ever gone back and looked anew at those cases?” Hetq asked the Police Chief after the conference had ended.

“No I haven’t. It never occurred to me. There’s so much on my plate,” Gasparyan answered and directed the head of the Police department’s Press Office to remind him about all those unsolved cases.

“When we finish solving our current caseload, we’ll take a look at the backlog,” added Gasparyan.

This, perhaps, is the most sincere confession uttered from the lips of the Chief of Police. Solving cases of assault and other violations against reporters has been placed on the back-burner in Armenia. Police chiefs come and go, but the overall picture in the country remains the same.

In the same conversation with Hetq, Vladimir Gasparyan also noted that during his tenure as the top cop, assaults against reporters “haven’t yet occurred”. ‘Yet’ is the operative word, and all we can do is wait and see.

In general, attempts to disrupt reporters doing their work and acts of violence against them spike during election cycles. This year was no exception.  We had the presidential election in February and Yerevan Municipal Council elections in May.

Election Violations

On presidential Election Day February 18, Narine Ismail, a young woman volunteering at the Transparency International-Armenia NGO as an election monitor for European Rights Coalition NGO and reporter Artak Hambardzumyan, a representative for the Reporters for Human Rights NGO, raised the alarm about ballot stuffing in Ararat Polling Station 17/05. Some 25-30 young men had entered the polling station and   several of them pushed the monitor and reporter up against the wall, grasping their hands, so that they couldn’t take photos or videotape the ballot stuffing.

The Constitutional Court declared the election results from this polling station null and void. A criminal case was launched, headed by the Special Investigative Service (SIS). During the preliminary examination, Narine Ismail told Hetq about the pressure exerted on her by law enforcement. Transparency International-Armenia issued a statement on the matter and U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern announced that he was following the case with great attention.

Investigator Gorik Hovakimyan split the case and filed charges against 27 year-old Sergey, the son of Artashat Mayor Gagik Mouradyan. The SIS found that on Election Day Sergey, as the proxy of President Serzh Sargsyan, entered the polling station with a group of others and assaulted monitor Narine Ismail, restricted her movement and prevented her from taking photos, thus hindering her in the execution of her work.

The statement released by the Prosecutor General Office notes, “According to evidence received before the trial, Sergey Mouradyan also aided unidentified individuals in stuffing the ballot box.”

However, during the court procedure Prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan declared that the charges against the accused would be dropped, given the lack of evidence that he participated in the violation that occurred.

Thus, months later, on July 26, presiding judge Gagik Sargsyan of the Ararat and Vayots Dzor Provincial Court found Sergey Mouradyan (who works as a first degree legal specialist at the Legal Consultation Division of the National Assembly’s Department of Expertise) not guilty and exonerated. The SIS halted the other section of the criminal case, arguing that the identity of the other culprits could not be ascertained.

Iravunk newspaper reporter Elmira Martirosyan declared that on Election Day, February 18, at polling station 17/01 in Ararat Province, she was hindered from carrying out her work by election proxies.

At polling station 17/04, New York Institute of Photography correspondent Tzovinar Nazaryan was hindered from her work by Tigran Virabyan, President of the local election committee and head of the Ararat Provincial Government’s Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection. Virabyan yelled at the reporter “like a hysterical person”, threatening her by saying, “I’ll kill you”.

That same day the websites asparez.am and aravot.am reported that reporters Marine Petrosyan and Nune Arevshatyan were threatened at Gyumri polling station 35/22. 168.am and aravot.am also reported that reporters Marine Martirosyan and Hripsime Djebejyan were hindered from working at polling stations 9/27 and 9/28 in Yerevan’s Nor Gyugh neighborhood.

Nevertheless, none of these incidents made it past the examination stage, on the basis of a “lack of a crime”.

 The Police also failed to find evidence of a “corpus delicti" in the case of reporters Gayane Saribekyan and Marine Kharatyan with the newspapers Hraparak and Zhamanak. On Election Day, near the campaign headquarters of the Republican Party in Yerevan’s Metaks neighborhood, the two reporters approached a group of some 10-15 individuals, asking to know what was going on. The group cursed the reporters and tried to snatch their photo equipment.

During an interrogation at the SIS, it was revealed that Hakob Beglaryan, younger brother of Transportation and Communications Minister Gagik Beglaryan, was one of those actively hindering the reporters. On March 15, the SIS dropped the case.

The situation was the same during the Yerevan Municipal Council elections. On April 23, while covering a campaign stop of Taron Margaryan (number one candidate on the Republican Party ballot), ilur.am reporter Hakob Karapetyan was assaulted. In addition to being roughed up, they hindered his professional work by snatching his camera and erasing the photo file.

Based on the findings of an internal investigation, Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan issued a disciplinary warning to a cop that was at the scene but failed to intervene. The cop’s immediate supervisor was issued a severe reprimand and a police officer serving as the deputy head of the Nor Nork branch was dismissed. It seemed that Ashot Papayan, a Republican Party member in the Yerevan Municipal Council, would also be punished. Papayan was the “hero” of the day since he assaulted the reporter. It took the Police two months to state that there was evidence of a crime in what Papayan had done. On July 20, he publicly expressed regret for his actions and asked for forgiveness. Four days later, law enforcement dropped the case on the grounds that the parties had reconciled.

May 5, the day when elections took place for the Yerevan Municipal Council, was also replete with reporters being prevented from carrying out their work and the police failing to find any “corpus delicti”.

On that day, the police received a report that voters in the Arabkir 4/02 polling precinct were being bused in to cast their ballots. Local election committee President Samvel Gzlaryan, a member of the ruling Republican Party, refused to provide any comment to news outlets and yelled at reporters on the scene. Heritage Party proxy Lala Arzumanyan claimed that Gzlaryan was hindering reporters from doing their job.

Samvel Zakharyan, president of election committee at the 7/14 polling station in the Haghtanak neighborhood, shoved a Hetq reporter out of the building. At the 7/05 polling station, a reporter from Kentron TV was barred from entering the building after failing to produce a certain document from the Central Electoral Commission. At polling station 8/08, Republican Party candidate Gevorg Manoukyan, using a proxy I.D., disrupted the work of reporters and monitors. Later that night, after the polls closed, a reporter from the newspaper 168 Zham was barred from entering polling station 07/34 to witness the vote count. At polling station 6/23, an Aravot newspaper reporter was not permitted to take photos.

Violations outside the electoral process

The incidents listed above are just a portion of the violations that occurred. During the current year there have been other incidents, outside the electoral process, where violations have occurred against reporters. In certain cases, the police manifested a degree of follow-up, but on the whole, even these illusions of concern were quickly shattered.

With certain reservations, the case regarding photo-journalist Gagik Shamshyan can be added to the list of exceptions. On January 30 of this year, Rustam Sahakyan and an unidentified friend, hindered Shamshyan from reporting from the Traffic Police’s auto impound center. The two assaulted the reporter and verbally abused him with sexual expletives.

The Police sent the case to court, charging Rustamyan with hooliganism and issuing verbal threats of violence. (The case is still pending). Charges against his unidentified friend were dropped.

On May 8, Hetq reporter Ani Hovhannisyan received a call from a cell phone registered in Russia. The caller threatened her, saying that if she continued to poke her nose in places where she shouldn’t, it would turn out bad for her and her family members. For a while, the police took steps to safeguard Hovhannisyan’s security. A criminal case was launched. Based on transcripts provided by a telephone provider in Armenia of the calls made and received by the cell phone number in question, five citizens and four witnesses were questioned. After all this, the case hasn’t passed the preliminary examination stage.

On March 1, Vorotan newspaper editor Arevhat Amiryan published an article claiming that Samvel Tangyan, head of the Syunik Provincial Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, had issued threats against him and his family regarding an earlier publication. “Arevik, I will destroy you and your family”, was the alleged threat. An inquiry conducted by the Syunik Investigative Unit found the lack of corpus delicti and the case was dropped.

In certain cases of reporters being assaulted, the investigative service of the Defense Ministry or the Military Police got involved. But the modus operandi of law enforcement in these cases as well remained the same.

On May 18, the relatives of a soldier who had died in a military unit, tried to take the corpse to Yerevan in a sign of protest. At a road checkpoint placed on the Sevan-Yerevan Highway, the police stopped all cars ferrying reporters to the spot where the dead soldier’s relatives had blocked traffic. The cops later assaulted the reporters and seized their recording equipment, arguing that they had received an order from above to prohibit any photographing.

According to the statements made by the news outlets, individuals in uniforms and plainclothes used force to seize and break the camera equipment belonging to a crew from Kentron TV. The damaged equipment was later returned and the video erased. Members of the Military Police also used force to seize the video camera of Lragir.am correspondent Siranoush Papyan. They erased whatever she had recorded up till then. A camera crew from Yerkir Media had their memory card confiscated. It was later returned after the police chief intervened.

The Sevan branch of the Gegharkunik Police assembled case materials that were handed over to the Gegharkunik Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. From there the case file was to go to the Defense Ministry’s Investigative Branch. But the case was dropped at this point since law enforcement claimed they couldn’t identify anyone to charge. The Ministry’s Investigative Branch also rejected launching an investigation on the same basis.

On May 30, Henaran.am correspondent Lusine Ghazaryan stated that she was assaulted near her home by Ministry of Defense Major Arkady Mkrtchyan. Ghazaryan alleged that the major verbally abused her and tried to beat her, but was stopped when neighbors intervened. The reporter also said that Mkrtchyan shoved her son down the stairs.

The next day, according to the reporter, the Nayri Police Chief returned her written complaint, advising her to amicably resolve the matter without police intervention. In the end, the case was handed over to the Kotayk Unit of the Defense Ministry’s Military Police.

Lusine Ghazaryan told Hetq that the Abovyan Military police launched a criminal case, but that it was dropped a week later. The reason given was that no injuries had been documented and that verbal assault wasn’t a criminally prosecutable crime. Ghazaryan says that law enforcement failed to take into account the premeditated nature of the incident and that they didn’t interview witnesses.

On May 19, Maxinfo.am founder Babken Haroutyunyan issued a statement alleging that he was assaulted two days earlier when he visited the village of Kanachout in Ararat Province. Haroutyunyan says he went there to photograph the palatial home of presidential advisor and former Police Chief Alik Sargsyan. After photographing the house, he says he was assaulted by Alik Sargsyan’s brother Andranik.

A forensic exam was scheduled and the case material was forwarded to the Ararat Investigative Unit. But the case was rejected on the grounds that there was no evidence that a crime had been committed.

On September 2, a woman participating in a counter demonstration at Yerevan’s Covered Market verbally insulted and threatened Radio Liberty reporter Nane Sahakyan. The incident was caught on tape. Sahakyan reported the incident to Deputy Police Chief Valery Osipyan who was on the scene. Osipyan then approached the woman in question and said, “This citizen alleges that you have threatened her. Please refrain from voicing such threats.”

The Police later informed Hetq that they had received no formal complaint. When asked if the tape recording wasn’t sufficient proof, the Police Department’s Press Office repeated the same argument – “No one filed a formal complaint. We haven’t received any.”

Nane Sahakyan says the entire incident was an attempt to hinder her job as a reporter. She stated, “I wasn’t interviewing that woman (Karine Sargsyan), but a woman standing next to her.” Sahakyan confessed that she hadn’t filed a complaint in order not to waste time or get stressed out.

On September 4, news outlets reported that police scuffled with activists and reporters near the Presidential Palace. Activists gathered across the street to protest Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union. Some of the demonstrators had approached the gate and were standing there peacefully when they were forcefully shoved back by the police.

Some of the protestors then sat down in the middle of the street and a few were arrested.

Regarding the incident, Epress.am wrote that the cops also prevented journalists from covering the event, violently shoving them so that they couldn’t photograph those who had been detained. The news outlet says that the police pushed their reporter and other press members on top of the protestors sitting in the street. “They encircled the reporters and didn’t let them out,” Epress.am wrote.

The Yerevan Department of Investigations failed to launch a criminal investigation of the incident.