From 1 to 10 June, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the President of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan’s personality and activities. 35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 203 articles were declared, 24 of which were negative and 179 were neutral.
NA Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan’s team has not yet been able to fix the situation; positive articles are still missing. Media accuses Mirzoyan of sponsoring. According to news outlets, Grigor Bekmezyan, a candidate for the JSC member, is Ararat Mirzoyan’s and MP Vladimir Karapetyan’s friend. “Zhamanak” newspaper writes: “Actually, the former “brotherly” principle continues to be used and it still maintains, simply the brothers and their brothers are just changed.”
An information was disseminated in the media that the NA Speaker is concerned about his security and that he takes additional measures in that direction. On the other hand, the media claims that Ararat Mirzoyan has initiated it to copy the prime minister.
The media continue to blame the authorities for patronage and cronyism. Most of these charges remain unanswered by the authorities. Only recently Ararat’s governor confessed that he had appointed his relatives to high positions.
