Artak Zeynalyan participates in the conference "Priorities of the media sector on the path of development of democratic institutions in Armenia"

Today, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan participated in the conference "Priorities of the media sector on the path of development of democratic institutions in Armenia".

Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Arman Tatoyan, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Naira Zohrabyan, USAID/Armenia Mission Director Deborah Grieser, President of Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan, members of the National Assembly and others also participated in the event organised by the Yerevan Press Club.

During the meeting, attaching importance to the role and significance of the press in a democratic society, Artak Zeynalyan noted that there are many judicial acts stating that the press is the basis of a democratic society. "The press is the guarantor of the freedom and the right of speech, the freedom of speech is one of the ways of freedom of expression, and the press has a very serious mission in the democratic society: it is called to communicate, disseminate information, and the management of this information, in general, is the basis of existence," Minister of Justice noted. According to the Minister, after the revolution of 2018, the press index has undergone a significant change in Armenia, and this is one of the achievements of the revolution. According to the rating of "Journalists without borders" international organisation, it has improved the situation and the condition by 19 points. “This is an important achievement, which must be recorded not only in the name of the authorities, but of all the people. This is a global achievement, this is an intangible reward, a value," Artak Zakaryan said and added that the free speech might also be shocking, but that should be only one of the exceptional manifestations, but very often exceptional manifestation becomes a pattern and the pattern becomes an exception among us.

Summarising the speech, the Minister emphasised that one of the functions of the press is to keep the society unanimous and peaceful.