31 July 2026, Yerevan
On the eve of the commencement of the newly elected 9th Convocation of the National Assembly, Acting Speaker of the National Assembly and Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan signed the Decision “On Approving the Security Rules Applicable to the Premises and Building of the National Assembly,” which also regulates the activities of media representatives in Parliament. Owing to its ambiguous wording and unacceptable restrictions, the document has already raised concerns among members of the journalistic community.
In essence, the new rules retain and further tighten the restrictions contained in the relevant decision adopted on 12 February 2019, which were expanded exactly five years ago, during these very days in 2021, through amendments and additions to Annex 1 of that document. It should be recalled that, on the basis of those amendments, restrictions were imposed on journalists’ movement and professional activities within the National Assembly that were unprecedented in the history of Armenia’s Parliament. It is particularly concerning that neither at that time nor now were these decisions discussed with media organizations or journalism-focused civil society organizations.
As it is now of little practical value to compare the old and new rules or to analyze their differences, we will focus solely on several provisions of the latest decision concerning the media. For example, Clause 1.6 of the document is particularly problematic. In addition to imposing territorial restrictions on the exercise of professional activities, it stipulates that “accredited journalists may attend a committee meeting only with the permission of the committee chair.” Moreover, such journalists must be registered in advance, and the corresponding list must be submitted to the Secretary General of the National Assembly at least two hours before the meeting. This creates broad scope for arbitrary decision-making by committee chairs. Equally difficult to justify is the provision in Clause 6.16, which states that, during open sittings of the National Assembly, “only persons included on the list issued by the Secretary General of the National Assembly shall have the right to be present in the galleries of the chamber.” Does this mean that even accredited journalists must undergo an additional registration process in order to access and work from the press gallery? Why is such a requirement necessary, and how often would this registration have to be repeated?
It is also unacceptable that the rules prohibit the filming, audio or video recording, or photographing of officers of the State Protection Service while they are performing their official duties within the National Assembly. This provision has been applied before and has already been criticized by the Information Disputes Council. The wording of the provision is overly broad and vague, failing to strike a proper balance between the public interest in obtaining information and the rights of security personnel in relation to the performance of their official duties and the protection of their privacy. Consequently, according to the Council’s expert group, this provision does not meet the standard of legality.
Recalling that, during the 8th Convocation of the National Assembly, there were numerous occasions when tensions escalated in the chamber and physical altercations broke out between members of parliament, prompting State Protection Service officers to enter the press gallery, demand that journalists stop filming, and order them to leave the chamber, the purpose of the aforementioned prohibition becomes readily apparent. Yet such incidents are by no means unprecedented, and the public has a legitimate right to know how each member of parliament conducts themselves and behaves in such situations.
In this regard, we, the undersigned journalistic organizations, consider it necessary to emphasize that the above-mentioned and several other problematic provisions of the decision contradict the guarantees concerning freedom of expression and the activities of the media enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the Law on Mass Media, as well as in international instruments signed by Armenia. Therefore, we call on the leadership of the 9th Convocation of the National Assembly, once elected, to:
-suspend the application of the provisions of the Decision “On Approving the Security Rules Applicable to the Premises and Building of the National Assembly” that concern representatives of the media;
-initiate open discussions with media outlets, journalistic NGOs, and other stakeholders in order to find mutually acceptable solutions to the issues contained in these provisions.
