On 30 June, the annual online meeting of the first group (FG 1) of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Civil Society Forum (CSF) – “Democracy, Human Rights, Good Governance and Stability” took place. The civil society organizations of six EaP countries and representatives of the European Union participated in the meeting.

In the first part of the meeting, the coordinators of FG 1 of six countries presented the events and latest developments in their countries.

Advocate Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, coordinator of FG 1 of the EaP CSF Armenian National Platform, presented the events and latest developments in the fields of democracy, human rights, good governance and stability in Armenia. In her speech among other issues, she also touched on the importance of independence and freedom of mass media.

She referred to the process of initiating court cases against the mass media by the political ruling “Civil Contract” Party.

Syuzanna Soghomonyan presented that, for example, several media outlets, referring to the source, disseminated information about the election violations that took place in the Sisian community this year, including when the pre-election headquarters received information in operational mode that electoral bribes were distributed to voters on behalf of the “Civil Contract” Party.  The same media also posted a denial of the ruling power regarding this information. Shortly after that, the ruling party sued five media outlets, demanding a denial, as well as large sums of money, including compensation for the fees given to their lawyers.

“This way of working can unfortunately develop two dangerous practices: first, they directly restrict the media’s right to freedom of speech, and second, they put them under a serious financial burden, indirectly forcing them to cease their activities or lose their independence. Moreover, it should be noted on the basis of the same example, that the legal team of the ruling power is the law firm that is affiliated with the officials of the justice sector. In particular, the owners of the law firm of the ruling team are the families of the current Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the Head of the Supreme Judicial Council. These are the two bodies that are responsible for initiating and holding disciplinary proceedings against judges, and the SJC is also responsible for the independence of the judicial system. This can create serious corruption risks in terms of interdependence and fair trial,” Syuzanna Soghomonyan said.