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The decision to ban Lilian Galstyan, a photojournalist for Panorama.am news site, from entering the National Assembly of Armenia goes to prove that every effort is being made to minimize the level of public awareness of the activities of state institutions, President of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan told Panorama.am in an interview on Thursday.

The ban came after the photojournalist published a series of photos titled “Enhanced control and security measures in the National Assembly” on Wednesday.

“Those journalists who provide unwanted information on parliamentary happenings are facing overt persecution,” he said.

The media expert noted the photographs published on the Panorama.am website reflect the real picture in the parliament and there is no provision limiting the distribution of such photos.

The head of the Yerevan Press Club underlined that the restrictions on the activities of journalists in the parliament area according to the procedure established by the authorities are illegal, since the measures were applied before the official decision and are based on verbal instructions.

“This illegal process continues,” he said.

Referring to the part of the parliament decision, according to which it is prohibited to photograph the faces of security officers at the checkpoints, Boris Navasardyan said that he was not familiar with such a provision.

“I am not familiar with it, just as I was not familiar with the restrictions that were applied on August 2, that is, the decisions were made retroactively. Even if a document containing such a point is released now, its application without discussions and a notification is a gross violation of the free activity of journalists,” he said.

Navasardyan stressed that there were no discussions on the application of such restrictions, adding it was mandatory for a constructive cooperation with journalists. In addition, he said, the media workers should have been notified of the decisions made following the parliamentary debates in advance.

According to the expert, the experience of journalistic organizations in recent months shows that they have little influence on decisions, as well as decision-making by various government circles.

“In fact, all alternative opinions and approaches are being ignored as to how work with journalists should be organized. I believe that the journalistic community should record that all steps taken by the authorities concerning the media and freedom of speech are aimed at limiting rights. That is, in recent months we have not seen a single step towards constructive, normal and healthy cooperation, the statements made repeatedly have made no difference.

“Thus, we must state that until this tendency changes, there can be no possibility of cooperation,” Navasardyan said.