Armenian president refuses to sign amended Law on Civil Code

YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian refused to sign the amended Law on Civil Code that provides for a hefty rise in fines that may be imposed for insults and defamation.

According to Sarkissian press office, the president considers the amended law to be presumably controversial from the point of view of constitutionality and has requested the Constitutional Court to determine its compliance with the country's basic law.

The press service said Sarkissian had discussed the amended law with the leaders of a number of journalistic organizations to find out their views and concerns regarding the law, which they said was passed without taking into account the opinions and proposals of the journalistic community. The concerns expressed by international human rights organizations were also considered.

'The President of the Republic believes that freedom of speech and opinion is extremely important and is concerned that, on the one hand, the proposed changes do not solve any systemic problems in the field, and on the other hand, the proposed regulations can significantly damage freedom of speech and expression, significantly restrict the freedom of journalists and the mass media in terms of objective criticism, including the ability to freely cover the activities of officials, public and political figures,' the press service said.

'In a democratic society, freedom of expression expressed through mass media, which act as a “public watchdog,” as well as opinions on matters of public interest are the most protected category. Freedom of expression in the Republic of Armenia is guaranteed by Article 42 of the Constitution. The right of every person to freely express their opinion is also enshrined in a number of international treaties,' the press service quoted the president as saying.

He also said that insult and slander are undoubtedly unacceptable and reprehensible. At the same time, an analysis of legal sources allows to conclude that any restriction on freedom of expression in a democratic society (including the amount of compensation prescribed by law) must be reasonable and proportionate, correspond to the socio-economic situation in the country, and the application of compensation should not have a negative impact on the discussion of freedom of speech and public issues, creating a disproportionately heavy material burden on the defendant, which may even have a decisive impact on its activities.'

The amendments had been drafted in 2020 by Deputy Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan from the ruling My Step bloc, who argued that they were important for protecting the honor and dignity of a person from slander and insults, and would also allow citizens to receive more reliable information.

Initially, Simonyan suggested raising the fines to 5-10 million drams, but before the second and final reading the thresholds were slightly lowered to thee million drams for insult and 6 million for defamation (($5,700 and $11,400  respectively).

After the passage of the amendments in the final reading on March 24, a number of journalistic organizations said in a statement that the changes would significantly damage freedom of speech. -0-