From April 21 to 30, 2020, the “Media Advocate” Initiative followed online media reports on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s personality and activities. 5 news agencies were monitored: 1in.am, news.am, armtimes.com, aravot.am and tert.am.
According to the monitoring, 573 articles were published on 5 selected websites regarding Nikol Pashinyan. 150 articles of which are negative, 32 are positive and 391 are neutral.
According to monitoring results of 5 leading news agencies, negative articles published on RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan prevail.
Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator of the “Union of Informed Citizens” organization, referring to the telephone conversation between the Prime Minister and the citizens affected by the power outages, stated, “The list of citizens who did not pay for electricity and their phone numbers are personal data which could not legally be available to Nikol Pashinyan. ”
According to another publication, the “Guardians of the Revolution” group operates under the auspices of Nikol Pashinyan. The publication notes: “One of these groups, which attacked the office of “Hayeli” Press club, officially operates under the name “Guardians of the Revolution “, directly noting that it serves the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In these conditions, when there are groups in the territory of the Republic, which are under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and threaten people, the increase of violence with the results of death seems to be a predictable outcome.”
The article according to which Armen Pambukchyan, a member of the “My Step” fraction of the National Assembly, referring to the complaints about why Nikol Painyan could visit Tsitsernakaberd, but the citizens were not allowed to, was positively assessed: “It is clear to everyone that the restrictions, in particular the ban on people attending the Genocide Memorial this year, were imposed not because of political realities or preferences, but in order to prevent the spread of the global epidemic. It is clear to everyone that the Prime Minister of the country, regardless of he or she is, has such “privileges” that a number of other officials and citizens do not have, and the only “privilege” that the RA Prime Minister and all other officials and citizens do not have is equality before the law, which in this case was not violated. #StayHealthy in your mind and body.”
From 178 articles published in news.am, 69 were negative, 7 were positive and 102 were neutral.
The news agency quoted Daniel Ioannisyan, the program coordinator of the “Union of Informed Citizens” organization, who considered Nikol Pashinyan’s telephone conversation to citizens as PR move, as here one deals with illegal processing of personal data.
The publications of the news outlet also refer to the “Guardians of the Revolution” group. According to on the articles, they operate under the auspices of Nikol Pashinyan.
During the government sitting, Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan opposed Nikol Pashinyan. There was a controversy over the idea of establishing traditional gardens and Tigran Avinyan did not agree with the Prime Minister: “Why finance the traditional gardens, which will be harvested in 4 years, when the intensive gardens can be harvested in two years, and the trees are planted more densely. In other words, we have new types of cars, but let’s start financing the old “zaporozhets”.”
The publication in which Armen Khachatryan, a member of the “My Step” fraction, referred to the statement of the former director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan that the police does not exist as a law enforcement body due to the incompetent policy of the current government, was positively assessed. “Why didn’t Vanetsyan do that in the past if the situation was like that?” He should also mention a result of which specific incompetent actions we do not have a police structure today. One of the most important burdens of today’s public administration is on the police, and direct preventive measures sometimes remain unappreciated. We do not know what may or may not have happened. The police implement its obligation well enough. The police are being improved today, there is a strategic development program. If Vanetsyan says such a thing, then where did that strategic development program come from. Furthermore, in accordance to Nikol Pashinyan’s instructions, urgent measures are being taken to successfully complete reforms as soon as possible.”
From 114 articles published in aravot.am, 42 were negative, 6 were positive and 66 were neutral.
The article by political scientist Stepan Danielyan was published by the news agency, where the political scientist, referring to domestic political issues, wrote: “For propaganda, too, there must be a contradiction between the existence of “blacks” and “whites”. There is a need for enemies to “fight” against as many people as possible and, in fact, to guide them to become the ones who control the situation. It is necessary to restrict the people’s choice, if not “us”, then “they” will come. The aim of the “revolutionary propaganda” is not to create public solidarity, the so called “love and tolerance”, but to point out enemies, to form an army of like-minded people, which, actually, Nikol Pashinyan has been busy with during these two years.”
In his article, Vatche Proodian again referred to domestic political issues, stating the following: “I am not disappointed with today’s situation in our country, because for two consecutive years Pashinyan has been constantly threatening everyone by using the street language, warning that he will lay them out on asphalt, cut paws and all this for the sake of “love and solidarity.” In other words, under the guise of love and solidarity, he openly divides the country and the people and sows hatred. The case of Gavar and Noratus in front of the police is the latest proof.”
“The vocabulary with which the Prime Minister refers to this topic, is not appropriate for his position. This is how Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression (CPFE), responded at the online press conference organized by “Media Center” when being asked how will he comment on RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements and accusations on the media receiving money from the authorities.
The Facebook post of the Prime Minister’s spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan was positively assessed, where the latter noted “If not Serzh Sargsyan then who knows better the value of my leader’s “meaningless lives”.”
From 112 articles published in armtimes.com, 2 were negative, 6 were positive and 104 were neutral.
According to Edmon Marukyan, there is about 200 billion unspent money, it is the money of our people, which the government does not want to allocate to the people.
The news according to which 35.2 million cash control machine receipts with a turnover of 145 billion drams were published in the same month of 2019, was positively assessed. It turns out that in March 2020, about 1.2 million pieces or 3.4% more cash control machine receipts were printed, but its turnover was about 5 billion 700 million drams or 3.93% less than in March 2019.
Other positive articles are repeated.
From 192 articles published in 1in.am, 43 were negative, 3 were positive and 146 were neutral.
The Khachatryans’ advocacy group noted that actions which are imposed on Gurgen Khachatrya are out of legal logic: “The RA Prime Minister’s spokesman, according to her official confirmation, speaks on behalf of the RA Prime Minister and the Government, agreeing the content with her immediate supervisor. Then let me mention that it is at least not permissible for a high-ranking official to voice such a biased legal assessment and make statements such as “according to government data” or “property of illegal origin.” Since when has the Prime Minister’s Office received investigative functions? We state that what happened directs the activities of law enforcement agencies openly and without context. After this announcement, the officials who should have been involved in this case will act in an atmosphere of direct and open pressure and will be constrained to record any reality other than what was presented on behalf of the RA Prime Minister’s spokesman as nothing but an “objective” reality.”
The positive articles refer to the statements of the Prime Minister’s spokesperson on the April 24 events.
From 62 articles published in tert.am, 30 were negative, 1 was positive and 31 were neutral.
Political scientist Aghasi Yenokyan posted a publication on his Facebook page, referring to the recent statement of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the fact of leaving the question unanswered by the Prime Minister. “Lavrov needs to be answered. The longer you procrastinate, the harder it will be. At first, Russia announced an increase in the price of gas, then Gazprom began to turn off the gas in the apartments, they published a compromising material on Nikol Pashinyan’s corruption deals, and later on the cigarette smuggling of his brother-in-law. It is not important that there may be falsehood. No matter what, Russia will continue such kind of leaks.” The news outlet also published Artհur Vanetsyan’s critical remark on the authorities, according to which, as a result of Nikol Pashinyan’s incompetent management, the police simply do not exist as a law enforcement body.
