From 11 to 20 June, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the President of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Sargsyan’s personality and activities.
35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 915 articles were declared, 138 of which were negative, 48 were positive and 729 were neutral.
During this ten-day period negative articles on President Sargsyan prevail and it is explained by Armen Sargsyan’s decisions and ongoing political processes. The president is criticized for nominating Vahe Grigoryan as a CC judge: the media and the public have not forgotten that Vahe Grigoryan earlier mentioned that Armen Sargsyan is not a legitimate president. The society also raises a question; if Armen Sargsyan is not a legitimate president, how is Vahe Grigoryan a legitimate candidate and now already a selected Constitutional Court judge?
According to the analyses, Armen Sargsyan was subjected to the pressure of the current political team and acted on their whim. There was even a protest in front of the President’s residence regarding Vahe Grigoryan’s nomination.
The PR team of the president tried to undertake some measures to mitigate the situation, but even those steps became reason of criticism. For example, the visit of the president to the barbershop in Gyumri was criticized.
Former head of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund, Ara Vardanyan harshly responded to the president after the latter criticized Vardanyan. This, in its turn, gave rise to negative articles. Along with all this, the public already criticizes the long-term outgoing visits of the president.
In fact, it turns out that former PR moves are no longer successful, and Armen Sargsyan is still losing in the political processes, because he is being criticized by not only the politicized part of the society but the extra-parliamentary opposition and the parliamentary opposition.
