According to the report of the Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Speech for the first quarter of 2026, the number of violations of media and journalists’ rights has decreased compared to the first quarter of 2025. “Armenpress”At the press conference held in the press hall of the Freedom of Speech Committee, Ashot Melikyan stated that there is a decrease in all directions.
“There has been a noticeable decrease in both physical violence and various pressures, and especially in terms of violations of the rights to receive and disseminate information. There were 2 cases of physical violence in the first quarter of last year, and 1 in the same period of this year. Various pressures were 25 in the first three months of 2025, and 22 in the first quarter of 2026. And there is a sharp decrease in the indicators of violations of the right to receive and disseminate information. We recorded 7 violations during this quarter, 29 in the first quarter of last year,” said Ashot Melikyan.
Referring to the sharp decrease in cases of violations of the right to receive and distribute information, Ashot Melikyan noted that there are two main reasons for this.
“There was a lot of talk about these problems. The state bodies started to deal with it because they noticed the gaps. In addition, there is a tendency to make a lot of information available on the digital platform. It can be useful in improving the situation,” said Ashot Melikyan.
The flow of lawsuits against journalists and media continues at the same pace. In the first quarter of this year, there were 14 new court cases. This indicator, compared to the first quarter of 2025 and other quarterly figures, the trend is maintained in the same way. Lawsuits were filed by officials, business representatives, journalists, opposition figures, and individual citizens. All cases are exclusively based on insult and slander.
Summarizing the figures, Ashot Melikyan noted that the first quarter of 2026 was relatively calm.
