Today, at the call of Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the “Tavush for the Motherland” popular movement, the head of the Diocese of Tavush, the police used unprecedented brutal force against the citizens who were carrying out peaceful disobedience actions and not only against them. People were even detained from the sidewalks.
Once again, the police did not hesitate to use violence against journalists performing their professional work.
Thus, ABC Media cameraman Mher Davtyan was pushed by one of the police officers, then, seeing that the latter fell on the stairs, he left without looking back, and on Tumanyan Street, several officers of the special police platoon (red berets), as well as a policeman of the patrol service used violence against 24News.am journalist Mary Manukyan, as a result of which she fainted and was taken to the hospital.
Naturally, the Investigative Committee, which is so attentive to any attempt to “hinder” the professional work of journalists operating in the office of the ruling power and pro-government media in general, and initiates criminal proceedings immediately, did not spread any news about the mentioned cases.
It is noteworthy that the editorial staff of 24News.am has legitimate doubts about the attack of the red berets being directed on the journalist on, about which they made a public statement.
The Union of Journalists of Armenia strongly condemns all brutal attempts of police against journalists performing their professional work, we urge the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to restrain the instincts of their employees, and the Investigative Committee to end the practice of applying double standards.
The journalists must do their job in any situation, and the police must ensure the smooth implementation of a journalist’s professional activity without restricting it, especially without using brute force against the journalist.
The Union of Journalists of Armenia also strongly condemns all kinds of manifestations of hate speech, calling on both sides to refrain from such reprehensible speech and targeting displayed on social networks and in their speeches.
We urge international journalistic and human rights organizations and institutions to focus on the behavior of police officers towards journalists and to give objective evaluations.
UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF ARMENIA