H.E. Robert Kocharian
President
Office of the President
26 Marshal Paghramian Street
Yerevan 375095
Republic of Armenia
Fax: (011.374.1) 52.15.81
Your Excellency:
We write to protest your country@quot;s part in the continuing world-wide abuse of press freedom.
On this day, World Press Freedom Day, there are — to the best of our knowledge –193 journalists imprisoned in the jails of 29 countries, most of them solely for having done their jobs. Armenia is one of the 29, and we are informed that you have in custody Murad Bodjolyan, a correspondent in Armenia for the Turkish Television Company (NTV).
Bodjolyan was sentenced on December 16, 2002, to ten years@quot; imprisonment with confiscation of his property for ?treason to homeland.? He was accused of transferring to Turkey military and economic information classified by Armenia as state secrets. The European Country of Origin Information Network reported that Bodjolyan@quot;s defense lawyer proved that ?he had used information already published by other media.? The lawyer also maintained that there was little evidence to support the charges, and suggested that his writings were the basis of the charges.
Your Excellency, Bodjolyan should be released both on principle and as a matter of expediency. The principle is simple, as stated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “”Everyone,? according to the Declaration, ?has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”” U.N. members recognize that this right is sometimes inconvenient and troublesome. Yet, it is crucial to uphold, and for practical reasons as well as principle: A nation that stifles freedom of thought and expression forfeits the good opinion of the world and isolates itself. This may prompt political or economic sanctions, with loss of diplomatic influence and domestic prosperity; at the least, it relegates a country to the company of North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, or Zimbabwe. And in long or short order, a repressive regime will be overturned.
The Overseas Press Club of America, an independent organization that has defended press freedom around the world for 65 years, urges you to re-think your policy, to welcome free expression of ideas and opinions, and to release Murad Bodjolyan.
The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.
Respectfully yours,
Larry Martz
Norman A. Schorr
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee