CPJ CALLS FOR EARLY RELEASE OF IMPRISONED JOURNALIST
Support A1+!New York, July 8, 2008―The Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement today in response to imprisoned editor Arman Babadzhanian's request for early parole. In September 2006, a district court in Yerevan sentenced Babadzhanian, the editor of the pro-opposition newspaper Zhamanak Yerevan, to four years in jail on charges of forgery and draft evasion. An appeals court later reduced the penalty by six months. Days before his arrest, Zhamanak Yerevan published an article questioning the independence of Armenia's prosecutor-general's office. "Arman Babadzhanian's real 'crime' was his critical journalism," said CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. "Though he pleaded guilty to draft evasion, he was slammed with an excessively harsh sentence. We strongly urge Armenia's new leadership to do the right thing and mend the country's tarnished press freedom record by granting early release to Babadzhanian and allowing him to work as a journalist without fear of reprisal."
