Haykakan Zhamanak has had trouble finding a printer, and at year's end a group of men burst into the newspaper's office and assaulted several staff members. Pashinian himself has been struggling to stay out of jail since August, when he was sentenced to a one-year prison term on various charges. On December 31, unidentified assailants used at least one Molotov cocktail to start a fire in the offices of the Russian-language Yerevan newspaper Novoye Vremya . The paper had only recently reprinted a controversial article from a Moscow newspaper, speculating about Sarkissian's assassination. As a result, self-censorship is widespread.
Restrictive legislation is yet another problem.
The press law currently in effect was passed in 1991, while Armenia was still part of the Soviet Union. But there were signs of progress. It remains to be seen whether Prime Minister Sarkissian will live by that bold statement. Oragir is affiliated with the opposition party Nor Ughi, headed by former education minister Ashot Bleyan, who is now in prison awaiting trial on charges of embezzlement. Pashinian believes that the authorities are trying to silence him for political reasons.