In a state of emergency, restrictions are natural, but they should be reasonable

National Assembly deputy Vahagn Tevosyan expressed a concern on his Facebook page related to the fact that media editors are sending out a long query to the Commandant’s Office which is currently working in overstrained conditions. Mentioning a few points what journalists should do, Vahagn Tevosyan demanded from them not to bother them in case of the rest of the cases.

Journalists are not against and are not hesitating to rely on official sources, but those structures should at least respond to phone calls. Commandant’s office responsible is Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, who first of all should urge his teammates not to disseminate contradictory information. In such conditions the rules of the media operation should be clear from the beginning and they should be the same for everyone. In recent days, there have been quite a lot cases when one official said one thing, another denied it, and urged the public and journalists not to panic.

In a state of emergency, as international experience suggests, restrictions are natural, but they must be reasonable, and first of all the officials must be organized and aware of one another, clearly deciding what to say rather than denying each other. The operability of information should not be subordinate to the accuracy of information. In case of the state of emergency or not, it is necessary to recognize and acknowledge that the state is not made up of just the government, the parliament and the Commandant’s Office. Various areas, including the media, continue to operate in the country.

By the way, we have begun to question the information provided by international organizations and various states at the state level. MP Vahagn Tevosyan also joined the campaign. Information published in international news outlets may be found in local news outlets. In fact, freedom of speech is restricted when the information bloc of the Commandant’s Office is failing to fulfill its duty in a proper way. Furthermore questioning the information provided by international structures and states can damage the partnership in future.

“Media Advocate” initiative has received a lot of complaints from journalists that the Commandant’s Office is failing in its work.

We urge the National Assembly MPs, dealing with the media issues, including Vahagn Tevosyan, to use his rich journalistic experience and develop legislative regulations that would be logical, would not raise a lot of questions and would promote effective work organization.