ArmNews TV host David Sargsyan posted an update on Facebook, expressing concern over the fact that the government deputies are refusing his invitation. In particular, he wrote: “Until recently, I managed to host at least one of you a week on my show, which often took a lot of efforts and time. As a rule, I was receiving 10-15 rejections, until one of the pro-government deputies agreed to appear on the air. My efforts over the last few weeks have been fruitless. Though I continue to contact dozens of deputies of the ruling fraction, I am being rejected for various casual pretexts, or I am unable to contact them because of certain artificial reasons. Nevertheless, I don’t want to assume at all that there is a political agreement not to be interviewed at all, so I have to reaffirm my invitation publicly, without having any other way out.”
Meanwhile, the government deputies do not reject the invitation of the Public TV. As a result of one month of monitoring, from April 15 to May 15, almost all of Petros Ghazaryan’s guests, except the “Public Discussion” program, were either from the “My Step” fraction or pro-government figures. The list of guests is as follows: April 15 – President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan, April 16 – Chief of Police Arman Sargsyan, April 17 – Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, April 20 – MP of “My Step” fraction Suren Grigoryan, April 21 – “Renovation Project Management Company” LLC Director Suren Sargsyan, April 22 – Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Ruben Rubinyan, April 23 – Chairman of the United Labor Party Gurgen Arsenyan, April 24 – Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, April 28 – Member of the “My Step” fraction Andranik Kocharyan, April 29 – “My Step” fraction MP Artak Manukyan and “Bright Armenia” MP Gevorg Gorgisyan, May 1 – NA Independent MP Arman Babajanyan, May 4 – Deputy Minister of Health Lena Nanushyan, May 8 – Head of the “My Step” fraction Lilit Makunts, May 11 – Deputy Director General at National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Ministry of Health Nune Bakunts, May 12 – Deputy Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan, May 13 – Member of the “My Step” Fraction Sisak Gabrielyan, May 14 – Member of the “My Step” fraction Maria Karapetyan and May 15 – Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, Aneta Babayan.
On the one hand, the representatives of the government reject the invitations of other TV companies, on the other hand, they blame them. For example, on May 22 Alen Simonyan stated in a conversation with Petros Ghazaryan that the former authorities use the media field to make people act against them. Meanwhile, if they have something to say and are confident enough, why don’t they accept the invitation of other TV companies and also raise that issue on any other channels except ArmTV. As for the reasons for rejecting the invitation to take part in Petros Ghazaryan’s “Public Discussion”, the anti-government figures note that the provided airtime is not equally allocated, which makes them feel so awkward.
“Media Advocate” initiative warns that the authorities are going to pass a law, they raise the issue of TV content and a number of similar issues, as well as accuse unilateralism and bias, while they refrain from debating on a number of essential issues and reject the invitation of private TV companies. In fact, they create artificial problems and then put forward laws that serve their own interests.
