From 11 to 20 July, 2019, the “Media Advocate” initiative followed online media reports on the Vice-president of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Alen Simonyan’s personality and activities.
35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored.
In the specified period, 30 articles were declared, 22 of which were negative, 1 was positive and 7 were neutral.
Vice Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan has not been in the spotlight of the media during our monitoring period, but the graphic received as a result of the monitoring, is not promising. The news outlets touched upon the fact that Alen Simonyan was eating sushi during his stay in the United States. According to media reports, this fact was criticized because he attended a luxurious restaurant and the news outlets add that after the criticism, the vice-speaker called people to “throw themselves off the bridge” and those who criticized him were blocked.
Alen Simonyan’s visit to Moscow has also been criticized. According to the news outlets, during the visit Alen Simonyan and his delegation left the hotel early in the morning and got dressed in the bus. During the visit, Alain Simonyan met with the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, S. Neverov. The news outlets say that there is news of the official meeting but the official statement does not contain Alen Simonyan’s photo.
It turns out that in the last monitoring period, the news outlets focused on Alen Simonyan’s outgoing visits. Alen Simonyan, in his turn, has not been active in terms of political activity. If publications correspond to reality, parliamentary diplomacy should change its way of working.
