Public Television has become a political propaganda machine for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

On January 29, the Public Television Company, which operates at the expense of taxpayers, grossly violated its functions reserved by the law and media ethics by broadcasting a video report on the case of the President of the Constitutional Court. The case, by the way, is under the investigation at the Special Investigative Service (SIS).

The nearly four-minute-long report, the so-called two-part film, was a pure propaganda of political persecution by the current authorities initiated against the President of the Constitutional Court, where the opposite opinion was completely absent. It included categorical reasoning, a gross violation of the presumption of innocence under ongoing investigation, and a covert and mediated approach by the authorities to put pressure on future judicial proceedings by means of the state media. ArmTV’s report also grossly violated Article 9 (7) of the law on the RA Constitutional Court: “Actions towards a judge within the framework of criminal proceedings are carried out ensuring the maximum confidentiality of pre-trial proceedings, respect for the authority and independence of the judge and the judiciary, excluding any direct or indirect interference with the judge’s activities.”
“Media Advocate” Initiative states that the working approach of the Public Television of Armenia, operating at the expense of taxpayers’ is completely incompatible with the functions deriving from the RA law and media ethics. All responsibility for the distortion of the Public Television Media Department falls on the shoulders of the Armenian authorities at large, and on the shoulders of the President of the Council of the Public Television Ara Shirinyan, the Executive Director of the Public Television Margarita Grigoryan and the Public Television’s News and Analytical programs Director Petros Ghazaryan in particular. We urge the Television and Radio Commission and personally its Chairman Tigran Hakobyan to finally start implementing the functions of the TRC in the manner prescribed by law and to bring to order the ones responsible for the media policy of the Television operating at the expense of the Armenian taxpayers.

“Media Advocate” Initiative also states that it will inform the international organizations of the unilateral political propaganda activities of the Public Television and will raise the issue in international structures that unite the media.