2025 In the first quarter, 56 cases of various violations of the rights of journalists and media were recorded. Of these, 2 were physical violence, 25 were various other forms of pressure, and 29 were violations of the right to receive and disseminate information. Such data was published today by the Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Speech.
According to the monitoring results, in 18 out of 25 cases, various forms of pressure on the media and journalists were most often carried out by government officials. It is noteworthy that among those filing lawsuits against journalists and the media, government officials also predominate. During the period under review, 12 out of 15 new lawsuits were filed by government agencies and high-ranking officials.
The pressure was mainly expressed in inappropriate behavior towards journalists, threats and insults, and obstruction of their legitimate professional activities. Moreover, sometimes such cases entailed lawsuits against the media or their employees. In this regard, the Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan has particularly distinguished himself, who, in addition to finding himself in conflict situations with journalists, also filed 4 new lawsuits against them. NA deputies Andranik Kocharyan, Vilen Gabrielyan and others demonstrated disrespectful and indecent behavior when communicating with media representatives.
According to the committee, two recorded cases of physical violence against media representatives also occurred in the National Assembly, when security officers used force against them.
On March 30, the day of the early elections to the Gyumri City Council, journalists were also pressured by citizens.
Although the number of violations of the right to receive and disseminate information has decreased in the reporting quarter compared to the same period last year (29 cases against 41 last year), the current situation can hardly be considered favorable. There were cases when state bodies unreasonably refused to provide information (7 cases), delayed the response (1 case), gave incomplete or general, inadequate responses (13 cases) or simply left requests unanswered (8 cases).
During the first quarter, 15 new lawsuits were filed against media outlets and journalists, of which 12 were filed by state bodies or officials, 1 by a citizen, and 2 by news agencies. The last two lawsuits are based on copyright protection, and the plaintiff is the Photolure news agency. The remaining 13 lawsuits are based on slander and insult.
The suspension of the activities of major donor organizations, in particular the US Agency for International Development (USAID), by the new US administration and the associated uncertainty about the future have become a serious challenge for the Armenian media sector. Dozens of media outlets and journalistic organizations that collaborated with this agency found themselves in a difficult financial situation, the implementation of numerous programs was suspended.
In its annual Freedom in the World 2025 report, published on February 26, the human rights organization Freedom House rated Armenia’s press freedom index at 2 out of 4 possible points. It noted that independent and investigative media operate relatively freely in the Republic of Armenia, while overall most print and broadcast media are linked to political or other commercial interests.