Managing Editor of Los Angeles Times blocks article on alleged 'Armenian genocide'

Los Angeles Times managing editor Doug Frantz blocked the publication of an article on the Armenian genocide by senior staff writer Mark Arax, who is of Armenian origin, APA US bureau reports.

Frantz said Arax is biased on Armenian issues expressing personal views about the topic in a public manner and therefore was not a disinterested party.

Frantz said late in 2005 four Los Angels Times' contributors of Armenian descent sent a letter to the chief editor of the paper demanding the events of 1915-1923 to be presented as genocide in the papers editing policy.

He also told Arax that he "went around [the] system" in a bid to land the story assignment, by dealing with an editor in the Times Washington bureau, Robert Ourlian, who is Armenian American. That is why Doug Frantz reassigned the story to Washington writer Rich Simon.

he revised Times article ran under the headline, "Genocide Resolution Still Far From Certain" on Saturday, April 21, four days before "Armenian Genocide" Remembrance Day in L.A.

Arax was given a consolation tagline at the end of the article for having "contributed" some reporting.

In protest, Mark Arax sent a written application to Jim O'Shea, the top editor of the Los Angeles Times presenting himself the victim of national discrimination. APA