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ARMENIA - Photographer assaulted in the north of the country
MONTREAL, Aug. 26 /CNW Telbec/ - Photographer Mkhitar Khachatrian, of the
PhotoLur agency was assaulted after taking photos of politicians' private
holiday villas in Tsaghkadzor in the north of the country.
Reporters Without Borders called on Armenia's prosecutor-general Aghvan
Hovsepyan to do everything possible to track down and punish those
responsible.
Khachatrian and Anna Israelian, of the independent daily Aravot, were
working on a report on the destruction of the forest caused by
house-building
in the region.
They were photographing private homes, chiefly belonging to parliamentary
deputies, on 24 August when a guard ordered them to stop. The journalists
refused to comply.
The same evening the guard, accompanied by a group of thugs, found the
pair in a local café. One of them struck Khachatrian and threatened to kill
him. He then ordered him to hand over his camera containing shots of the
villas, and the photographer handed him the disk.
Assaults on journalists have escalated since the start of the year. On 5
April several journalists were manhandled on the sidelines of a
demonstration
while security forces looked on. In June, two of the assailants were fined
about 150 euros in connection with the assaults. Security forces beat up two
more journalists at a demonstration on 13 April. In its letter to the
prosecutor general, the international press freedom organisation stressed
that, "Coming after the incidents in April it would be dangerous to all
journalists if a climate of impunity were allowed to take hold".
For further information: Emily Jacquard, Responsable de la
communication, Reporters sans frontières Canada, [email protected],
(514) 521 4111, Cell: (514) 258 4208, Fax: (514) 521 7771
---
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2004/26/c4353.html
ARMENIA - Photographer assaulted in the north of the country
MONTREAL, Aug. 26 /CNW Telbec/ - Photographer Mkhitar Khachatrian, of the
PhotoLur agency was assaulted after taking photos of politicians' private
holiday villas in Tsaghkadzor in the north of the country.
Reporters Without Borders called on Armenia's prosecutor-general Aghvan
Hovsepyan to do everything possible to track down and punish those
responsible.
Khachatrian and Anna Israelian, of the independent daily Aravot, were
working on a report on the destruction of the forest caused by
house-building
in the region.
They were photographing private homes, chiefly belonging to parliamentary
deputies, on 24 August when a guard ordered them to stop. The journalists
refused to comply.
The same evening the guard, accompanied by a group of thugs, found the
pair in a local café. One of them struck Khachatrian and threatened to kill
him. He then ordered him to hand over his camera containing shots of the
villas, and the photographer handed him the disk.
Assaults on journalists have escalated since the start of the year. On 5
April several journalists were manhandled on the sidelines of a
demonstration
while security forces looked on. In June, two of the assailants were fined
about 150 euros in connection with the assaults. Security forces beat up two
more journalists at a demonstration on 13 April. In its letter to the
prosecutor general, the international press freedom organisation stressed
that, "Coming after the incidents in April it would be dangerous to all
journalists if a climate of impunity were allowed to take hold".
For further information: Emily Jacquard, Responsable de la
communication, Reporters sans frontières Canada, [email protected],
(514) 521 4111, Cell: (514) 258 4208, Fax: (514) 521 7771
---
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2004/26/c4353.html