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“The third quarter of 2017 was post-election period, with no social and political tensions seemingly recorded at the time. However even that period saw unfortunate events regrading impediments against the journalistic work and physical violence against journalists,” Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE), told a news conference on Monday.

Presenting the annual (third quarter of 2017) report of CPFE on the “Situation with Freedom of Expression and Violations of Rights of Journalists and Media in Armenia”, he noted during the indicated period two reporters were subjected to physical violence, 16 faced various types of pressure and 39 reporters had their rights to receive and disseminate information violated.

The CPFE chairman meantime added that although the previous quarter saw more cases of violations, certain alarming trends are currently observed.

“If the number of pressure cases have significantly cut down, the number of the violations of the right to receive and disseminate information has increased. In the second quarter, five cases of physical violations were recorded, with two such cases registered in the third quarter. The number of the pressure cases has reduced to 16 from 57, while the cases of violating the right to receive and disseminate information have increased four times. This is certainly an alarming phenomenon, since it comes to show reporters are facing serious problems when attempting to receive and disseminate information,” he added.

Mr. Melikyan noted the number of violations of the rights of journalists, however, raises concerns, citing the inappropriate actions of the law enforcement agencies, court decisions and judgements over such cases as key reasons behind them.