Yerevan/Mediamax/. Head of the “Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Expression”, Ashot Melikian, said today that “journalists in Armenia work in hard conditions.”

According to Melikian, law suits against media outlets prove this, Mediamax reports. Ashot Melikian noted that in the second quarter of 2011, 4 new similar cases have been added to previous ones. According to him, most of the plaintiffs are well known politicians or people from their entourage.

The head of the Committee hailed the fact that the court declined MP Tigran Arzakantsian’s lawsuit against “Iravunk” newspaper.

Comparing the first and the second quarters of 2011, Ashot Melikian noted that cases of pressure on media outlets and reporters have decreased from 15 to 6, and cases of infringement of the right for getting and transferring information fell from 4 to 2. At the same time, he said, 2 cases of physical violence against journalists were registered in the second quarter whereas there were no such cases in the second one at all.