Authorities' initiative to criminalize insulting civil servants triggers criticism in Armenia

Eleven journalistic and public organizations have demanded from Armenian authorities to abandon the initiative of introducing criminal liability for insulting and slandering civil servants. Such amendments to the Criminal Code will lead to political persecutions of authorities' critics and censorship, human rights defenders believe.

The Armenian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) has initiated amendments to the Criminal Code by proposing to criminalize insults addressed to state (civil) servants. The corresponding draft amendments were posted on February 17 on the united portal of legal information "E-draft.am".

Eleven Armenian journalistic and public organizations demanded from the authorities to reject the bill believing it to be a logical continuation of the legislative initiatives through which the authorities are trying to restrict the freedom of speech and media activities, says the statement posted on February 18 on the website of the Public Journalism Club.

The adoption of the amendments will lead to political persecutions of critics of the authorities, since in this way authorities are trying to safeguard themselves from justified criticism, Nina Karapetyants, the head of the Helsinki Association of Armenia, told the "Caucasian Knot". "This is a good instrument to shut up all the dissidents," she has stated.

The amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code will lead to censorship and disproportionate protection of the authorities from criticism, said Daniel Ionesyan, the programme coordinator of the NGO "Union of Informed Citizens".

"There is no such democratic country in which insult or slander against authorities is criminally punishable, but not against ordinary citizens," he told the "Caucasian Knot".

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 20, 2021 at 05:40 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.