From 11 to 20 June, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Lilit Makunts’s personality and activities.
35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In contrast to the previous ten-day period, this time the activities of the MP were more actively covered by the news outlets. This was the reason why Mrs. Makunts was not in our spotlight during the previous monitoring period. As far as the positive articles are concerned, the change is not so vivid, and negative articles still prevail in comparison with the positive ones. The media agencies compare the leader of the RPA faction and Lilit Makunts. According to the news outlets, the leader of the RPA faction personally responded to journalists’ questions and Mrs. Makunts seemed passive in regard to this issue.
The behavior of two members of “My Step” alliance, Ruben Rubinyan and Hovhannes Igityan in PACE was defined as scandalous. Ruben Rubinyan, according to him, had some technical issues by reason of which he voted against the draft on Russia’s return to PACE: Hovhannes Igityan did not attend the session at all. The news outlets also demand explanations from the head of the parliamentary faction, Lilit Makunts on this incident.
Lilit Makunts’s statements regarding the implementation of vetting have also been criticized.
It turns out that Lilit Makunts has difficulty when working with news outlets. Furthermore, during the monitoring period Lilit Makunts did not make a clear comment on the international voting in which her faction representatives had participated.
