The judgment of the Court of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan, which makes iLur.am and Hraparak expose their sources, is a tough attempt to restrict freedom of speech in Armenia, Larisa Alaverdyan, the first Ombudsperson of Armenia, has told ArmInfo's correspondent.
"This judgment is like a personal insult for me, because I have also made a contribution to development of freedom of speech in Armenia", says Alaverdyan. She believes that the only obvious achievement of Armenia is the freedom of expression. "It is another thing that the freedom of expression has no big impact, but the opportunity to freely express an opinion exists and it is unacceptable to deprive us of it", she stresses.
To recall, for the first time the Court of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan has taken a decision making the mass media expose their sources of information. In particular, the matter concerns Hraparak newspaper and iLur.am website, which published information about Head of Shirak Police Vardan Nadaryan, who stopped the car of Artur Alexanyan, hit him and pulled a gun at Alexanyan and his brother. Based on this information, the Special Investigation
Service initiated criminal proceedings, and Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said that in the case of grave crimes and felonies the court might force the journalist to expose his source of information. The National Press Club has already disseminated a statement demanding that the Court of Appeal should revise the decision of the first instance Court of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan.