ALMOST TO TAKE A DEPUTY HOSTAGE
Support A1+!NA-accredited journalists today were on the verge of organizing a protest and declaring a strike in parliament. They even threatened to go to the extreme and take a deputy hostage. The reason behind this was NA administration chief Hayk Kotanyan’s decision to not let in any journalists who had arrived even one minute late and forbid any journalists stepping out of the hall to return. The decision is based on the fact that the NA Chairman is annoyed by deputies and journalists coming in and going out of the hall. Of course, this decision couldn’t have affected the deputies.
“This is their session,” cleared up Kotanyan. But it does affect members of the administration, experts and journalists. In fact, even the journalists and cameramen at the NA press and public relations department were not allowed to enter the hall. So, in essence, this decision was going to not only set limits on the rights of the journalists, but it was also going to affect the parliament because it would be practically impossible to shed light on its activities. Among the journalists who had raised their voices against this decision was deputy, former journalist Naira Zurabyan. She noted that if the decision was intended on establishing order in the hall, it had to start with the deputies.
President of the commission on this field Armen Ashotyan did not approve the decision, but he underlined that journalists were coming in and going out more often.
On behalf of the journalists, Armen Ashotyan and Naira Zohrabyan asked the NA Chairman to annul the decision of the administration chief. Ashotyan managed to explain the essence of the issue to NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan after which the decision was annulled.
It all took an hour and ended with the journalists’ victory.
