GYUMRI, DECEMBER 13, NOYAN TAPAN. 50 citizens founded the headquarters on protection of speech freedom and the television company "Gala" in Gyumri on December 12, NT was informed by Levon Barseghian, chairman of "Asparez" club of journalists. Persecutions of "Gala" television company and its owner Chap LLC started after they covered in detail the rally held by Levon Ter-Petrosian in late September. The headquarters developed a brief program on protection of "Gala" TV company. The program envisages attending the December 13 trial "Gyumri mayor's office against Chap LL" at the Gyumri courtroom of the RA Economic Court and demanding that Judge Edward Nahapetian declare self-challenge and "not participate in the buffoonery of depriving "Gala" TV company of the air". It is also envisaged to call on Armenian mass media outlets to cover intensively these developments. "The Brief Program" also envisages a collection of signatures with the aim of proposing the mayor of Gyumri Vardan Ghukasian to reject the version of solving this problem in court and to rent the old television tower of the city to "Gala" TV company with reasonable conditions. A rally "in defence of freedom speech and "Gala" TV company" will be held on December 19, at 4:00 p.m. at Gyumri's Theatrical Square. The headquarters has also made a decision to apply to the Armenian authorities to "restrain the court activity of V. Ghuksian," rent the television tower to "Gala" telecompany and take measures to hold an objective trial. According to a press release of the headquarters, pressure has been put on the independent information channel of "Gala" television company for two months, Gyumri mayor's office has applied to court with the request to disconnect the old TV tower of Gymri from the television aerial, while the Gyumri tax inspection also applied to court with the request to levy an "invented" fine of about 25 million drams. According to the same source, in the last 36 days, the Gyumri city police unit has not yet arrived at a conclusion in the issue of opening a criminal case against employee of the State Tax Service H. Hovhannisian for attacking a cameraman of "Gala" TV company.

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