Journalistic Organizations Support Photographer of Panorama.am

Journalistic organizations have issued a statement regarding the prohibition of access to the National Assembly for Lilyan Galstyan, a photographer for Panorama.am.

"On the morning of August 5, the entrance of Lilyan Galstyan, a photographer for Panorama.am, to the National Assembly was prohibited. It later became apparent that she was completely deprived of the opportunity to cover the parliamentary proceedings. In a letter sent to the editorial office, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Assembly, Anna Grigoryan, informed that the photographer violated point 2.8 of the Annex to the decision on establishing rules for the territory and building of the National Assembly, which prohibits recording, filming, or photographing employees of the security service in the protected area, including at control checkpoints during the conduct of their professional activities.

The editorial office, on its part, notes that some of the photographs were indeed taken in the corridors and meeting halls of the National Assembly; however, the security service employees, who, according to the leadership of the National Assembly, have issues with concealing their faces, are openly looking at the hall from where the live broadcast is conducted.

We, as the undersigned journalistic organizations, strongly condemn the arbitrary actions and baseless restrictions imposed on journalists by the leadership of the parliament since the beginning of this week and reaffirm our deep concerns expressed in the statement of August 3. Recently, the surge of decisions and legislative initiatives obstructing freedom of speech and the operation of the media has evidently disrupted the possibilities of establishing civilized relations between the government and the media. And as long as these regressive initiatives are not revoked, we will consider them an infringement on the rights of our colleagues.

Based on the above, we demand from the leadership of the National Assembly:

• To immediately restore the right of Lilyan Galstyan, the photographer of Panorama.am, to enter the parliament and cover the activities of the National Assembly;
• To annul or withdraw the decisions and projects recently approved or introduced that restrict the activities of journalists, and to refrain from similar new initiatives;
• To formulate all issues regarding the relations between the parliament and the media in a single document, and to organize broad discussions involving accredited journalists in the National Assembly, as well as interested organizations and experts, in order to develop legal and reasonable solutions," the statement said.