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In PACE during the debate of the report Attacks against Journalists and Media Freedom in Europe the member of the RA Delegation Samvel Farmanyan delivered a speech.

“It is quite clear: media freedom is core for any democracy. If freedom of the media is assured, then democracy has a chance. If journalists are deprived of their right to cover things as they see fit, and if they are attacked, then democracy is endangered and many nations become hostages of their own autocratic regimes.

Samvel Farmanyan has noted that he is not going to talk about Armenia, simply because there is no reference to Armenia in the report. Thanks to God, Armenia has a good record on media freedom.

“What I want to talk about is the astounding reference to Nagorno-Karabakh in paragraph 9 – I would call it a quite manipulative reference – where Mr Ariev has included, in a report devoted to media freedom, phrasing that suggests that Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan and that it is a non-transparent and lawless area. The simple question that comes up is why that reference is included. Do you think that the Azeri Government needs it because it cares about media freedom? Never. It cares about media freedom in Nagorno-Karabakh but not in Azerbaijan. All of us know well what is going on in Azerbaijan with regard to democracy. It is really a ridiculous picture.

Another question that comes up is why the honourable Mr Ariev has put that reference there. Unfortunately, it is not because Mr Ariev has paid a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. He has not done a fact-finding mission. He has not used Freedom House or Reporters without Borders records, where Nagorno-Karabakh has a better position than Azerbaijan itself. We see the reason in his interview with the Azerbaijani press, where he excuses himself in front of Ilham Aliyev by saying that his grandmother is an Azerbaijani. That was his wording.

Finally, we should remember that we are not on a battlefield. We are not hostages. I know how tired you all are of this Armenian-Azerbaijani fighting and of this formulation,” Samvel Farmanyan said, calling on to support the amendments.

“Let us send a clear message to President Aliyev that he should find new markets for trading instead of Strasbourg,” Samvel Farmanyan concluded.

Let us remind that Ariev refers to the issues of press freedom in the conflict zones and states: “PACE notes with deep concern that by Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights designed media freedom lacks in the territories of the member states, which are de facto controlled by separatist regimes, particularly, in Azerbaijan, in Nagorno Karabakh, Georgia – in Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia, and in Moldova – in Transnistria.”

Three amendments have been submitted regarding this provision, by which it is proposed to replace the abovementioned names by “conflict zones.”