At the initiative of the president of the Union of Journalists of Armenia Satik Seyranyan the meeting with Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan was held with the aim of discussion of the details of Yerevan Mayor’s directive to present proposals on the regulation of the work of journalists inside the administrative buildings of Yerevan Municipality, as well as to talk over the issues raised the media anxiety in connection with the incident occurred in Yerevan City Hall on February 19.
Conveying the anxiety of the journalistic community to Yerevan Mayor the president of the Union of Journalists of Armenia Satik Seyranyan said.
" The aim of meeting with you, first of all, is to get explanation about the reason of hindering the work of the mass media representatives in the City Hall and to understand if it was possible to find another solution to that situation so as not to obstruct the legal professional activity of journalists.
I’d also like to present the objective anxiety of the journalistic community caused by the announcement of the Municipality regarding your instruction to regulate the activity of journalists inside the City Hall administrative buildings. Taking into account that the local self-governance bodies are elected bodies and require absolute transparency, accountability, and that the media is the median link which provides public awareness of the activity of the Municipality and the Council of Elders, the misunderstanding of this announcement, its not complete implementation, can be understood by the public and journalistic community as an attempt to hinder the elucidation of the Municipality activity, to hide the process of sessions, particularly taking into account the recent heavy incident, and this way to avoid any other loud incidents”.
Attaching importance to the meeting initiative, Yerevan Mayor turned to the recent incidents, to the preservation of the Municipal premises and to his instruction to regulate the checkpoint order.
“I attach importance to this meeting as after my instruction there seems to be some misunderstanding among mass media and journalistic organizations. Some media sources commented as restriction of their activity particularly after the incident at the last meeting of the Council of Elders. To tell the truth the recent incidents made us reconsider the format of cooperation between journalists and the Municipality however it can’t hinder the transparency but will make the cooperation of the Municipality with the mass media more effective.
By the way, you may have noticed that my instruction refers to checkpoint order in the City Hall in general, to the issues of preservation the premises as well as regulation of the work of the staff and the journalists.
As regards the incident occurred on February 19, I’d like to note that the Municipality building is involved by the RA Government in the list of the areas to be preserved by the state so the order of entering the building was not kept and it wasn’t at the fault of mass media. Taking it into account the head of news service asked for those present journalists’ apologize.
We highly appreciate and attach particular importance to journalists’ activity: in some cases due to their help we can reveal some problems which is certainly a necessary assistance to city authorities.
We are accountable to our co-citizens. Yerevan Council of Elders is an elected body so we are responsible to our electors.
At the same time, I feel pity that our citizens had to witness the unpleasant incident occurred at the last meeting of the Council of Elders, as it is not befitting the highest governance body of Yerevan".
At the end of the meeting Yerevan Mayor and the president of the Union of Journalists of Armenia made an agreement to include the representatives of mass media in the initiative of creation conditions for the organization of work for mass media so as they could contribute to the organization of more transparent, convenient and effective work which will benefit the residents of Yerevan.

Information and Public Relations Department
of the City Hall of Yerevan