The European Court of Human Rights has also found that governments should show a high tolerance for peaceful assembly, even assemblies that the authorities deem unsanctioned or illegal.
“Clearly identified journalists carrying cameras were deliberately targeted,” said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
Mijatović wrote to Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian indicating that the Government “should implement practical steps to ensure restraint on the part of law enforcement representatives toward members of the media and suggested steps should be taken by the authorities to guarantee that the press is not targeted by the police or thugs. The police should be protecting journalists and members of the media.”
We demand that the Armenian police immediately cease all illegal activities against the citizens and urge the authorities to launch an investigation into the actions of those who gave the orders and executed the crackdown on the unarmed protesters.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) states that 47 individuals have been arrested or imprisoned as a result of the July 17 seizure of a Yerevan police building by the Sasna Dzrer armed group.
Armenia’s Ministry of Health reports that overall, since the seizure of a police building on July 17 by the armed Sasna Dzrer group and subsequent events, 25 people, including six police officers, two reporters and three members of the group, are being treated.
Media material regarding the abuses by Yerevan police on July 29 and 30 in the Sari Tagh neighborhood have been sent to the country’s Special Investigative Service for examination.
When asked by his lawyer if he had any message for the people, Sasna Dzrer member Arayik Khandoyan, who surrendered yesterday along with 19 others of the armed group that had seized a police building on July 17, said: “The only thing I have to say is that I love my homeland, my Armenia and my Armenian people.”
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