INFRINGEMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS STILL CONTINUES IN ARMENIA, CHAIRMAN OF HELSINKI ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIA SAID

PanARMENIAN.Net - YEREVAN, March 23. /Mediamax/. Chairman of Helsinki Association of Armenia Michael Danielian said today at a press conference in Yerevan that illegal actions infringing human rights continue in Armenia.

As Danielian said, 5 representatives of religious trend "Witnesses of Jehovah" were illegally arrested and convicted in Armenia after the country was already a member of the Council of Europe. The total of representatives of this religious trend, convicted in Armenia, is 31 people, he said. According to Danielian, 14 of them have been acquitted, but they have to "show up" each month in the regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Danielian noted that Helsinki Association has some information, confirming the facts of infringement of rights of the media representatives. The lawyer brought his own example, noting that he, the own correspondent of the Russian "Express-Khronica" paper, was refused accreditation for elucidating the trial of the case of the October 27, 1999 terrorist act in the Armenian parliament.

Commenting on the "TV and Radio Law", passed last fall by the parliament, Michael Danielian said that according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe, TV and radio must be public. "But if the chairman of the Public TV Company Council is appointed by the president, then the TV Company becomes pro-governmental", Danielian said. --0--