“Media Advocate” initiative continues the series of interviews with the press secretaries and heads of the state agencies. This time our interlocutor is Lusine Martirosyan, the Press Secretary of the Minister of Justice.
The position of the press secretary is closely connected with the minister; as it is accepted, the change of the minister implies the change of the press secretary. You have been working since 2013, during this time 5 ministers of Justice have changed. Would you please share how you managed to become irreplaceable?
– In fact, I started working in the Ministry of Justice in August 2012 as an expert in the Information and Public Relations Division, after which, during these years, I was appointed as Chief Specialist of the Division, then it became a department, I was appointed Deputy Head of the Department, then Head of Department. All these positions were civil service positions, not discretionary ones. With the appointment of new ministers, I continued to fulfill my working responsibilities as a civil servant. Only in 2018, as a result of an amendment to the Law on Public Service, according to which the position of the head of the public relations department in the ministries became discretionary and it should have been held by the press secretary. At the suggestion of the then RA Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan, I was appointed Chief-Spokesperson of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Ministry.
After being appointed to a discretionary position, I was definitely ready to leave the post after the appointment of a new minister, as I am very well aware that trusted people should be appointed to the posts of ministerial advisers, assistants, press secretaries; that’s the reason why these positions are discretionary. However, after being appointed as RA Minister of Justice, Rustam Badasyan decided that I should continue my work. Frankly speaking, I am happy and grateful for that decision, because during these years the Ministry of Justice has become a workplace close to me, I am happy with its success and sad for the problems that sometimes arise, as I consider them my personal successes and failures.
You have previously worked in “Armenpress” news agency as a journalist, the journalistic community knows you very well. As a press secretary, you respond quickly to the questions raised by journalists. Which kind of obstacles or disagreements arise with the journalists, in general, what are the Armenian journalists like, is it easy to work with them?
Yes, I started my work activity from “Armenpress” news agency, for which I am very happy. It was the school that gave a lot of professional skills and abilities due to the compassion of my colleagues and their willingness to help.
I try to always be available to my colleague journalists as much as possible, to respond as quickly as possible, because I know that late reaction, denial and response are ineffective.
At this point, I will hardly remember any obstacles that have arisen during my collaboration with my journalist colleagues.
I appreciate the cooperation very well, if there are some problems or necessity of corrections in the publications, they willingly correct when being contacted about the issue. I can not help appreciating it. Working with my journalist colleagues is easy and most importantly – effective.
Would you tell us about a working day, how the day starts, how many inquiries, calls and interview invitations you receive?
The day starts with getting acquainted with the news after I open my eyes. Sometimes there are press reviews spread on all news agencies, which need to be quickly responded, denied or clarified, etc. After arriving at work, I recall the hours of the day’s appointments, get acquainted with the news and start doing the work planned in advance.
I definitely do not have a shortage of calls 😊 My landline phone is almost always overloaded, twice as much, of course, my cell phone. Otherwise I will not feel good, I have learned to live at this pace. The average number of calls may exceed 50: I answer both the calls of our citizens and journalists. As for the interviews, the number of daily invitations is about five – we try not to refuse as much as possible. As for the number of verbal and Facebook queries, it is better not to mention it 🙂
Let’s talk about one of the most discussed issues – the judicial system, which from the beginning of the year appeared to be, so to say, the target of attacks, discussions and criticisms. What is the current strategy of the Ministry in this direction? What happened to the vetting?
The government, represented by the Ministry of Justice, announced the decision to carry out in-depth reforms in the judicial system. In a very short period of time, from June to October 2019, the Ministry of Justice presented to the public very serious strategic documents aimed at the reform of the judiciary and anti-corruption spheres. I sincerely want everyone to imagine a result of which kind of hard and diligent work those documents were, which, by the way, were highly appreciated both by the representatives of our civil society and the international community.
Immediately after the adoption of judicial and anti-corruption strategies, the Ministry again in a short time implemented amendments to the Judicial Code and related laws (same as vetting), drafted the Law on Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin, which is already in force. I think we will all see the results of law enforcement soon. In the approved documents, all the actions and goals were clearly presented, in the direction of which the Ministry continues to move.
The Ministry, after studying the unsuccessful experience of vetting of Albania, which has been widely pointed out by all (http://moj.am/storage/uploads/Albania_vetting.pdf ), decided to offer in-depth and systemic solutions, to introduce long-term and working tools of moral verification, which will enable the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption to compare the assets of the current judges, members of the Supreme Judicial Council and the judges of the Constitutional Court through a detailed analysis of declarations of assets of all years and their thorough comparison.
The procedure for subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability was improved. The decisions published on the website of the Supreme Judicial Council “speak” about the number of mediations have been submitted during this period by Minister Badasyan to subject to disciplinary responsibility. The Ministry of Justice has stated that yes, there will be vetting, and the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has already presented the first results of their ethics check/vetting based on the reforms implemented by the Ministry.
On September 4, the regular sitting of the Professional Commission on Constitutional Reforms took place. What were the most important emphases?
Yes, it was the regular sitting, about which an official information was disseminated․ The details are presented in it, I can not mention anything more.
How have the changes in the country affected the freedom of speech?
Only in a positive way. During my work activity I have never encountered so many unhindered posts and publications as in the last two years. Of course, I like moderation in every issue, I would very much like people not to spread insults and slanders under the guise of freedom of speech.
