{"id":9688,"date":"2018-04-20T21:18:41","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T21:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/let-me-go-im-a-journalist-i-said-im-a-journalist\/"},"modified":"2018-04-20T21:18:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T21:18:41","slug":"let-me-go-im-a-journalist-i-said-im-a-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/newsroom\/2018\/04\/20\/9688\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet me go, I\u2019m a journalist.. I said I\u2019m a journalist\u2026\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the morning of April 20, journalist for the sut.am website, Tirayr Muradyan was forcefully removed<\/a> by police officers from the Take a Step, Reject Serzh protest grounds at the Abovyan-Yerevan highway. The incident took place when the journalist was in the process of broadcasting the events and was visibly wearing his journalist badge.<\/p>\n

The police officers approached the journalist standing on the sidewalk and pushed him into a civilian car. During this time, he did not turn of his live connection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the shorthand of the conversation which took place between the journalist and the police.<\/p>\n

–  You\u2019re getting in the way, you\u2019re blocking the road.<\/p>\n

– I\u2019m on the sidewalk, colonel, I\u2019m on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

– Take him, I said take him. Easy.<\/p>\n

– Let me go. I am a journalist, I said I am a journalist. I have a badge, see.<\/p>\n

– We understand.<\/p>\n

– I am a journalist, colonel, I\u2019m a journalist.<\/p>\n

– Hurry up and sit him down.<\/p>\n

– Where are you taking me? Where am I sitting? What business do I have in a civilian car? Take me with your car.<\/p>\n

– Sit down let\u2019s talk.<\/p>\n

– I don\u2019t feel safe here.<\/p>\n

The RFE \/ RL \u201cAzatutyan\u201d correspondent approached and asked<\/p>\n

– Tirayr what happened?<\/p>\n

– I was standing on the sidewalk, the colonel came and ordered that I be detained.<\/p>\n

The police officer attacked the journalist and by grabbing his head forced him to sit in the car.<\/p>\n

– Come on, make him sit, sit in the car, you.<\/p>\n

– Let me go.:<\/p>\n

–  Calm down. Come on drive.<\/p>\n

The RFE \/ RL \u201cAzatutyan\u201d journalist asked<\/p>\n

– Major, why are you interfering in his work?<\/p>\n

The policeman exclaims:<\/p>\n

– Whose? I\u2019m not interfering. Don\u2019t get in the way. I\u2019m not interfering with anyone.<\/p>\n

The police took Tirayr to the Aboyan division. During a conversation with Azatutyun<\/a>, the journalist said that the police had received an order to take him and leave him in the same place where he was taken.<\/p>\n

He said that he was not subjected to any violence in the car, but while he was being released, they didn\u2019t apologize.<\/p>\n

Tirayr Muradyan is going to report the crime to the police, for interfering with a journalist\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Ashot Aharonyan explained that the journalist was not arrested, but simply removed from the specific location and then released from the car.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t want to answer any question regarding the legalities of what happened to Tirayr Muradyan yet, and promised to spread the statement when the investigation is over.<\/p>\n

Ashot Aharonnyan reminds us that they have issued a statement requesting that when journalists are carrying out their professional activities, they do not obstruct police officers who are performing their legal activities.<\/p>\n

Earlier, on April 19, Tirayr was assaulted<\/a> and taken to the hospital when conducting his professional work. He has filed a criminal case on the basis of this incident.<\/p>\n

Journalistic organizations urge<\/a> that journalists and media are treated with tolerance and restraint.<\/p>\n

Gayane Asryan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the morning of April 20, journalist for the sut.am website, Tirayr Muradyan was forcefully removed by police officers from the Take a Step, Reject Serzh protest grounds at the Abovyan-Yerevan highway. The incident took place when the journalist was in the process of broadcasting the events and was visibly wearing his journalist badge. The Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsroom","author_posts-gayane-asryan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}