Qaryak Media founders condemn arrest of TV channel owner

The founders of Qaryak Media have condemned the arrest of an Armenian TV channel owner, considering a recently initiated prosecution against him "crackdown on independent media".

″The owner of an independent media outlet enjoys such a public position which, under conditons of an unaccomplished democracy, may tempt any political authorities into impacting those people in a real effort to target the media outlet in question.

″The reports on the prosecution against Armen Tavadyan, the owner of Fifth Channel, create such an impression to say the least. Any action by the public authorities towards hampering or questioning the freedom of meida is condemnable and must meet an unequivocal public resistance,″ Arman Saghatelyan, Mihran Hakobyan, Samvel Farmanyan and Karen Bekaryan say in a statement.

As part of a recently launched criminal probe, the Special Investigative Service on Tuesday detained Tavadyan on suspicion of attempts to seek a false testimony (Section 4(1), Artcile 240 of the Criminal Code of Armenia).