rights
defenders, and opposition leaders,” the report says.The
report says the most drastic step occurred in June when the president
signed into law amendments to the Law on Television and Radio that
tightened control of the country's influential broadcast media. The
government tried to deflect attention from the restrictive amendments
by embedding them into a package of measures meant to move radio and
television stations from analog to digital signals. Sargsyan ignored
domestic and international protests over the restrictions, which are
seen as benefiting his Republican Party as it approaches parliamentary
elections set for 2012.The amendments enable
government regulators to grant or revoke licenses without explanation,
as well as impose programming restrictions that would confine some
stations to narrow themes such as culture, education, and sports,
according to news reports. Analysts said the changes would provide the
government legal cover to keep thepopular news outlet A1+ off the air.
The amendments positioned Sargsyan to maintain control over the
country's docile television and radio stations, most of which were owned
by pro-government politicians and businessmen. Propagandistic state
media retained important financial subsidies from various government
budgets and privileged access to official information. While print and
online media were more pluralistic, their reach was limited to a
primarily urban and educated audience.Throughout the
year, police officers routinely harassed, assaulted, and arrested
journalists, according to local press reports and media analysts.
Prosecutors regularly colluded in this practice by failing to
investigate police officers, even filing charges on occasion against
journalists who protested abuses, CPJ research showed.

The
activities of the new mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan started with
very unpopular steps that have stirred a lot of talk among the public.
Karapetyan, who had for years headed ArmRosGazprom, an