Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has made a statement on Facebook, saying “All those who work in Armenia in the logic of violence, lie, and fraud are acting against Armenia, against democracy, against the people.”
Supposedly, this note is a response to the violence against Narek Malyan and contains a dangerous tendency to put an equality sign between violence and dissemination of misinformation. Both of these crimes have their definitions and corresponding punishments envisaged by the RA legislation and they are not neutralizing and balancing each other. This is not the first time when the Armenian authorities speak of dissemination of misinformation and of the necessity to fight against it, without bringing any example and evidence. Moreover, they are trying to use these allegations to justify judicial punishments against the press.
The “Media Advocate” initiative calls on the Armenian authorities to fight against specific cases of fraud within the framework of the legislation and not to spread distrust on mass media with frequent announcements. At the same time, we believe that equality sign between the violation and the dissemination of the alleged misinformation could endanger public safety.
#MediaAdvocate #PremierMinister #FreeSpeach
