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On the basis of violations in the working zone, the state bodies will be given the opportunity to terminate the accreditation of journalists.

The debate of the draft law on Making Addendum to the Law on Mass Media authored by the NA deputies Artur Hovhannisyan and Lilit Minasyan was held at the sitting of the RA NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport on May 17.

According to Artur Hovhannisyan, there are many cases when the journalists of specific media outlets violate the rules in the state bodies, in particular, in the work zone of the National Assembly. The statute and the rules of ethics in journalism are regularly violated, disrupting the normal work of parliament. Proposals were suggested to solve the problems and fill the gap, which were debated with the Human Rights Defender’s Office and the colleagues of the Ministry of Justice.

Pursuant to the proposed amendment, the accreditation of a journalist can be terminated on application of the person, carrying out media activities, who presented him/her for the accreditation or by the state body which accredited him/her. Moreover, the accreditation of a journalist by the state body on his/her own initiative can be terminated only in the case if the media outlet has been warned about termination of accreditation, and during one year a journalist has violated the envisaged rules of the Statute again. The media outlet will have an opportunity to change the journalist, being not deprived of the opportunity to be represented in the state body in practice.

Another addendum was made at the suggestion of the Ministry of Justice, according to which, the violation of the accreditation procedure and the rules of the Statutes of the given bodies is a ground for terminating the accreditation of a journalist.

It was proposed to debate the draft within 24 hours.

The co-rapporteur, the deputy Hasmik Hakobyan noted that if the journalists work within the framework of the law and the internal charter of the state institution, no additional burden will be imposed on them with the proposed amendment.

The amended draft was endorsed.