Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009europe and central asia: armeniaBut this is not the Wild West—this is Russia in the 21st century, an influentialcountry claiming an equal seat at the table of global leaders. In a world moreinterconnected and interdependent than ever, that seat comes with a portfolio ofprivileges and obligations.The need to address the issue is urgent. Impunity emboldens enemies of thepress to continue practicing the rawest form of censorship. In Russia, the maxim“No person, no problem” reflects both the philosophy of the murderers and thefailure of the justice system to rein them in. It also spells out the vulnerabilityof Russian journalists who take on risky subjects—like lone soldiers in a battlefield,they make easy targets for elimination. It’s worth remembering that they arefighting for everyone. World leaders in the European Union, in the United Nations,in the U.S. State Department and U.S. Congress are obliged to back them,to press the case with the Kremlin, and to demand President Medvedev and hisgovernment stand for the rule of law and on the side of humanity.Nina Ognianova, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, led aCPJ mission to Moscow and Brussels in September 2009. She is lead authorof CPJ’s September 2009 report, Anatomy of Injustice, which examined theunsolved murders of journalists in Russia from 2000 to 2009. CPJ’s GlobalCampaign Against Impunity is underwritten by the John S. and James L.Knight Foundation.ARMENIAThe nation remained polarized by the fraud-marred 2008presidential election won by Serzh Sargsyan, with large public protests and violentgovernment reprisals continuing well into 2009. The global economic crisiscaused layoffs in the mining industry and a decline in remittances from Russia,heightening public frustrations. The government sought to suppress critical debateover these issues, and journalists faced intolerance, hostility, and violence.The government maintainedcontrol over most broadcastmedia, the primary newssource in a poverty-afflictedcountry with poor newspaperdistribution and low Internetpenetration. The Council onPublic Radio and Television,composed of presidential appointees,continued to set editorialguidelines for H1 statetelevision, ensuring the stationgenerated pro-government reports.Most private radio and»»Broadcast media controlled bygovernment or its allies.t o p developments»»Numerous assaults reported, butpolice do little.12key statisticBroadcast license applicationsfiled by independent outlet A1+.None approved.television stations were owned by politicians and businessmen with close ties tothe government, leading to significant self-censorship by journalists and limitedcritical news reporting on the airwaves, CPJ research showed.One independent news outlet remained off the air. In February, a Yerevanappellate court dismissed lawsuits filed by the media outlet A1+ that sought reconsiderationof its broadcast license applications. The station, pulled from theairwaves in 2002 in reprisal for its critical news reports, has seen a dozen licenseapplications rejected by the government’s broadcast regulator. (A1+ has continuedoperating as an independent online news agency.) The Strasbourg-basedEuropean Court of Human Rights ruled in 2008 that the regulator violated theEuropean Convention on Human Rights by repeatedly rejecting the applicationswithout explanation.Country summaries in this chapter were researched and written by Europeand Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova, Research AssociateMuzaffar Suleymanov, and freelance writers Alex Lupis and CatherineFitzpatrick.164165