Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) wants to criminalize the defamation of public servants, arguing that such acts should be viewed as posing “the highest public danger”.

The PGO proposes supplementing the Criminal Code with a new article, according to which insulting or slandering a public servant in connection with his/her performance of official duties is punishable by a fine in the amount of one hundred to five hundred times the minimum wage. (from 100,000 to 500,000 drams)

The same act committed by the mass media or other public means in connection with the performance of his official duties by a public servant shall be punishable by a fine of 500 to 3,000 times the minimum wage (from 500,000 to 3 million drams) or by imprisonment for a maximum of 2 years.

The PGO argues that the decline in the quality of human relations in public life has negatively impacted respect for public authority, as evidenced by the fact that there have been frequent cases when a person in public service, including in the civil service system, is insulted or slandered.

This is the second bill to increase compensation for insult and slander. A bill introduced by Parliamentary Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan proposes 5 million AMD compensation for insult and 10 million AMD for defamation. The bill was adopted in the first reading.