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AGAIN THEY ARE REQUESTING "ARAVOT" TO DISCLOSE THE SOURCE OF INFORMATION
June 12 2014
The experience of "Aravot" shows that the desire of our law enforcement
agencies to find out the source awakens when it comes to the former
Syunik Governor Suren Khachatryan. The investigation service of
Defense Ministry had already interrogated two of Aravot.am employees,
requesting to disclose the source of information in our publications
about Surik Khachatryan. Recently, we received a letter signed by
the Head of Goris Police Department of RA Police, police colonel
A. G. Hovhannisyan, which was sent to "Aravot" on May 30. The letter
particularly reads, "Under the necessity of the materials prepared at
the Goris Police Department, please provide us with the information
about the sources of information available in the article "Stabbing
in Goris. Again Surik Khachatryan's relatives" (26.05.2014) published
in your website." We have already sent a letter to the police with
the same answer, which we had informed verbally during the previous
two interrogations. That is, according to the Law of the Republic
of Armenia on Dissemination of Mass Information, Article 5, "1. The
persons implementing media activity and the journalists shall not be
obliged to disclose their sources of information, with the exception
of the cases set forth in the 2nd part of this Article. 2.
The implementer of media activity or a journalist can be obliged
to disclose the source of information by the court decision, in the
course of a criminal proceeding with the aim of revealing heavy or most
heavy crimes, if societal interest in law enforcement overweighs the
societal interest in protecting the sources of information, and all
other means to protect public interest are exhausted. In such cases,
at the petition of the journalist, the court proceedings can be held
in camera." At the request of disclosing our source of information,
accordingly, you can apply to the court." In addition, the requests for
disclosing the sources of information became more frequent after George
Kostanyan's taking office as a Prosecutor General. The prosecutor's
office had published its attitude afterwards, which particularly reads,
"By the instruction of the RA Prosecutor General, the supervising
prosecutors shall initiate criminal and judicial influencing
measures defined by law for each case of publications in the mass
media about the evidences obtained during the pre-investigation,
or the circumstances subject to checking, to ensure identification
of circumstances and sources of these information that have become
known to the media, as well as the implementation of investigative
and judicial actions necessary with this regard. The culprit will
be punished by the law." We find it proper to mention that whenever
we will be requested to disclose the source of information, we will
refer to the same provision of the law.
Thus, we call the law enforcement to apply to court without wasting
time on documentation.
Anna ISRAELYAN
Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2014/06/12/165631/
June 12 2014
The experience of "Aravot" shows that the desire of our law enforcement
agencies to find out the source awakens when it comes to the former
Syunik Governor Suren Khachatryan. The investigation service of
Defense Ministry had already interrogated two of Aravot.am employees,
requesting to disclose the source of information in our publications
about Surik Khachatryan. Recently, we received a letter signed by
the Head of Goris Police Department of RA Police, police colonel
A. G. Hovhannisyan, which was sent to "Aravot" on May 30. The letter
particularly reads, "Under the necessity of the materials prepared at
the Goris Police Department, please provide us with the information
about the sources of information available in the article "Stabbing
in Goris. Again Surik Khachatryan's relatives" (26.05.2014) published
in your website." We have already sent a letter to the police with
the same answer, which we had informed verbally during the previous
two interrogations. That is, according to the Law of the Republic
of Armenia on Dissemination of Mass Information, Article 5, "1. The
persons implementing media activity and the journalists shall not be
obliged to disclose their sources of information, with the exception
of the cases set forth in the 2nd part of this Article. 2.
The implementer of media activity or a journalist can be obliged
to disclose the source of information by the court decision, in the
course of a criminal proceeding with the aim of revealing heavy or most
heavy crimes, if societal interest in law enforcement overweighs the
societal interest in protecting the sources of information, and all
other means to protect public interest are exhausted. In such cases,
at the petition of the journalist, the court proceedings can be held
in camera." At the request of disclosing our source of information,
accordingly, you can apply to the court." In addition, the requests for
disclosing the sources of information became more frequent after George
Kostanyan's taking office as a Prosecutor General. The prosecutor's
office had published its attitude afterwards, which particularly reads,
"By the instruction of the RA Prosecutor General, the supervising
prosecutors shall initiate criminal and judicial influencing
measures defined by law for each case of publications in the mass
media about the evidences obtained during the pre-investigation,
or the circumstances subject to checking, to ensure identification
of circumstances and sources of these information that have become
known to the media, as well as the implementation of investigative
and judicial actions necessary with this regard. The culprit will
be punished by the law." We find it proper to mention that whenever
we will be requested to disclose the source of information, we will
refer to the same provision of the law.
Thus, we call the law enforcement to apply to court without wasting
time on documentation.
Anna ISRAELYAN
Read more at: http://en.aravot.am/2014/06/12/165631/