Government Amends Restrictions on Information Dissemination During State of Emergency

The Government of Armenia adopted decision 310-N on March 19, amending a number of provisions in the annex to the Government's decision N 298-N from March 16, 2020, regarding the dissemination of information during the state of emergency. This information is available on the electronic governance platform e-gov.am.

The decision states: “Based on Article 34 of the Law on Normative Legal Acts, the Government of the Republic of Armenia decides:

1. To make the following amendments to the annex of the Government's decision N 298-N from March 16, 2020, on declaring a state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia:
2. To rephrase point 23 as follows: “23. During the state of emergency in the Republic of Armenia, as well as regarding the existing and new cases of contamination with the novel coronavirus outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia, the health status of individuals, sources of infection, individuals in contact with existing or potentially infected persons, the number of individuals undergoing examinations (testing for the infection) and isolated individuals, measures implemented by the authorized body in the healthcare sector, and the data related to them, as well as publications containing potentially panic-inducing information or presenting a real risk of creating panic situations shall be disseminated publicly, referenced only to the information provided by the emergency management (hereinafter referred to as official information).”
3. To rephrase point 25 as follows: “25. The restrictions set forth in this chapter shall not apply to:
   1. reports made by state officials or references to their reports;
   2. references to the official websites and social media official pages of the heads of foreign countries, state bodies, and/or their representatives;
   3. references to the official websites and social media official pages of international organizations accredited in the Republic of Armenia and/or to which the Republic of Armenia is a member.”

2. This decision takes effect upon publication.