Alen Simonyan Proposes Increased Compensation for Defamation and Insult

Alen Simonyan, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, has proposed a significant increase in the compensation amounts for insults and defamation published on social networks and in the media. The corresponding document has been published on the official website of the National Assembly.

According to Simonyan, the proposal pertains to Article 1087.1 of the Civil Code, which regulates the procedures and conditions for compensation for damages caused to a person's honor, dignity, or business reputation. In cases of insult, an individual may judicially request one or more of the following remedies:

1. Public apology. The form of the apology is determined by the court.
2. If the insult appeared in information disseminated by a media outlet, the court may order the full or partial publication of its judgment through that medium. The method and scope of the publication are determined by the court.
3. Payment of compensation up to a maximum of 5000 times the minimum wage.

In cases of defamation, an individual may judicially request one or more of the following remedies:

1. If the defamation occurred in information disseminated by a media outlet, the offender may be required to publicly refute the defamatory information and/or publish their response regarding it.
2. The form of the refutation and the response will be confirmed by the court, following the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Mass Media.
3. Payment of compensation up to a maximum of 10,000 times the minimum wage.
4. If no source (author) was cited during the insult or defamation, or if the source (author) is unknown, or the media outlet, exercising its right not to disclose the source, does not reveal the author's name, the liability for compensation falls on the party presenting the insult or defamation. If the information was disseminated by a media outlet, that outlet retains responsibility.

Thus, it is proposed to increase the compensation for insults from 1 million drams to 5 million drams, and for defamation from 2 million drams to 10 million drams. The justification mentions that the draft aims to provide additional guarantees to protect individuals' dignity or business reputation not only from individuals but also from false or defamatory attacks from mass media.