During yesterday’s Q&A session held in the NA, the Prime Minister announced: “I would like to draw your attention to one thing: there has never been voting in Armenia when there operate 5 oppositional TV channels. There has never been voting in such conditions in the history of Armenia. And there has never been a voting in the history of Armenia when Armenia shares the 8th place with France in press freedom index.”
It should be noted that the government represents only one side of the coin. Various international reports are regularly cited, indicating that Armenia has improved its position in the area of press freedom, but when the time comes, the Prime Minister does not make any condemning statements about the pressures taking place; there have been quite a lot of cases recently. The case of Yerevan-Today should be reminded, when law enforcers searched the editorial office and confiscated the computers belonging to the media.
The law enforcement officials then visited the editorial offices of News.am and Aysor.am news agencies. We can’t forget the attack on the 5th Channel cameraman, the arrest of Armen Tavadyan, the head of the same media outlet, the death of journalist Mher Yeghiazaryan after a 44-day hunger strike, the one-sided fight against the “Fake” users, the infamous draft law of TRC (Television and Radio Commission) restricting the operation of private TV companies which was not successfully completed due to public and professionals’ efforts forcing the authorities to give up on the idea
Among those cases of pressure, one may recall the case of an attack on the “Hayeli” (“Mirror”) press club owned by Hrayr Tovmasyan’s sister, Angela Tovmasyan, breaking into the editorial office of the Zhoghovurd daily, a request to submit a financial report in order to provide Armday with an accreditation. At the same time, there are both administrative and legislative pressures on oppositional television stations, which the media community hardly resists. Apart from this, there have been cases of judicial and criminal pressure.
The unrestricted professional work and protection of journalists, the ensuring of press freedom is a constitutional obligation of the government, and one should not be proud that there was no voting in Armenia when there were five opposition television stations under such circumstances. “Media Advocate” initiative reminds the Prime Minister of his statement that the press has never been as free as it has been after the revolution. If it is free, then the fact of the existence of oppositional TV channels should not be continually reminded all the time.
P.s. Addressing the topic, 168.am wrote: “Nikol Pashinyan himself posted an update on his Facebook page on April 18, 2019 regarding the Press Freedom. He shared the data of the authoritative international organization Reporters Without Borders, according to which Armenia improved its position in comparison to its 2018 result. It happened to in 61st place improving its position by 19 points. In case that 2019 report has not yet been published. This is not the first time that the Prime Minister makes such inaccuracies in his speech; there are numerous examples when Nikol Pashinyan edits the posts on his Facebook page.”
