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On March 31 on the initiative of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs parliamentary hearings were held on the theme “Online Libel and Defamation: The Existing Problems and Proposed Solutions.” Deputies, journalists, representatives of local and international NGOs and experts of mass media took part in it.

The Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs Davit Harutyunyan has informed the attendees that the legislative initiative authored by the deputies Arpine Hovhannisyan, Davit Harutyunyan, Edmon Marukyan, Naira Zohrabyan, Elinar Vardanyan, Tevan Poghosyan, Armen Rustamyan, Stepan Demirchyan, Gagik Jhangiryan and Heghine Bisharyan refers to the regulations of the comments containing libel and defamation in the materials of the internet media.

According to the authors, the problem of regulating the field exists in our country, too. Davit Harutyunyan has clarified that the goal of the hearings is to discuss the international experience, raise the problems and jointly find ways of solutions to it.

The co-author of the legislative initiative Arpine Hovhannisyan presented the legislative initiative, as well as the experience of different countries in the sphere under discussion.

The participants delivered speeches. The Chairman of “The Committee of the Protection of the Freedom of Speech” Ashot Melikyan has proposed to remove the bill from the circulation, as it is dangerous for the media, as the authors have demonstrated an unilateral approach and the interests of the media has not been taken into consideration. His views were shared by Suren Deheryan, the Head of the NGO Journalists for Future, and Levon Barseghyan, the Chairman of Asparez club. In the opinion of the expert of the media Samvel Martirosyan, the draft law raises numerous questions, and all active users can have problems. Davit Harutyunyan has noted that the authors of the proposals to remove it from circulation seem not to be aware of the provisions of the draft law under debate.

The deputy Naira Zohrabyan in her speech has noted that the journalists and editors, who deem necessary the regulation of the sphere, also applied to her for elaborating the initiative. She has informed the participants that the problem has also been discussed in the PACE; there has been a recommendation to the national parliaments to make initiatives.

By Alexander Arzumanyan’s conviction, the sphere has no need of legislative regulation. According to him, an attempt is made to enter into a sphere where control is impossible.

In the deputy Margarit Yesayan’s word, the proposing legislative solutions will endanger the freedom of speech and the principles of democracy, with whose words did not agree the deputy Edmon Marukyan, who considered inexpedient to apply to the court in case of any such demand.

In her final speech the key reporter Arpine Hovhannisyan has touched upon the voiced views, has documented with satisfaction that almost all the speakers hold the same opinion that there are problems in the sphere and they need to be solved. She has proposed the participants of the hearings to submit constructive recommendations, which the authors are ready to discuss.

Summing up the hearings Davit Harutyunyan referred to the raised questions and recommendations, noting that there were valuable recommendations during the discussion, which would be discussed in the working group to be formed.