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The Constitutional Court of Armenia has ruled that legislative amendments concerning the increase of fines for publishing insults and defamatory comments in the media and social networks do not run counter to the country’s Constitution. The decision of the Court has been published on the official website. 

To note, the National Assembly of Armenia adopted in March the legislative draft “On Making Amendments to the RA Civil Legislation,” proposing to increase compensation for insult or defamation by five times, bringing damages for an insult from one million Armenian drams to five million drams (nearly 9000€), and for defamation from 2 million drams to ten million drams (about 18000 Euro).

The President of Armenia declined to sign the draft bill into law and sent it to the Constitutional Court for review. The legislative initiatives had been widely condemned by media and journalists' organisation, which warned the bill would curtail media freedom and freedom of expression. 

Moreover, the bill was adopted without taking into account the views of the Ministry of Justice or the Human Rights Defender’s Office, nor of the civil society and media organizations that expressed serious concerns about it.