From 21 to 31 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, 40 articles were declared, 15 of which were negative, 3 were positive and 22 were neutral.
The news outlets have almost forgotten about the NA Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan. Of course, the passive holiday season should be considered, but compared to other politicians included in our monitoring list, Simonyan is less covered.
The media publishes articles comparing the 7th convocation and the 6th convocation National Assemblies. It is noted that there are only few bills presented by the National Assembly of this convocation and Alen Simonyan, in his turn, is also passive in this regard.
The media also remembered the period of Alen Simonyan’s acting career: News agencies wrote offensive remarks and criticized Alen Simonyan. “Media Advocate” is always in favor of criticizing cases of violations of journalistic rules and principles, but condemns offensive expressions. We urge the media to refrain from emotional remarks and not to use offensive expressions when criticizing this or that politician.
Alen Simonyan has also been criticized for his comments on the Constitution. According to the media, before criticizing the constitutional issues, Alen Simonyan must remember that the issue of amendment of these legal documents was smoothly removed from the political agenda of the “revolution” by his political team.
Alen Simonyan should intensify his activities, otherwise the media will constantly refer to his former activities.
