I think the following are the most important sentences in the Prime Minister’s yesterday’s assignments directed to the state agencies: 1/ To inform regularly the society and the public about the implemented works ensuring feedback, to present which directions we follow (by the way the society and the public in this case are the same- A.A). 2/ To ensure feedback with the society through official websites and persons in charge. 3/ The Prime Minister also assigned his staff to provide the society with the list of all persons in charge by fields as well as the contacts to ensure feedback with him. In reality, without a continuous mutual feedback with the society, it is impossible to go forward in our situation.
I hope this is not a temporary “weekly” or “monthly” foreseen strategy, which requires responsible work first of all from the statesmen and then also from the people responsible for their PR (do not get surprised) from us- journalist- too. In order to make clear what is the issue , let me provide an example, the first one that came to my mind. The society has the right to know why the north-south road has not been built, the construction of which started 6 years ago. if such a question is addressed to the Minister of Transport and Communication, he should not think that the person who asked the question is a spy or a troublemaker, as well as he should not except only admirable publications. He should not say either that, what happened, happened, it is not my business. Blaming someone, of course ,is not autotelic but the main part of the money for the construction, as I understand, we have borrowed, which will become a burden on the shoulders of the future generations. when this construction continues, the person in charge for the public relations in the ministry should have complete information on each meter and each mite that is spent. It is preferable that this person in charge writes not only on the website of his/her agency every day but also more “informal”, in a human language posts on his facebook page as Press Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Artsrun Hovhannisyan did during the 4-day war, because any event that takes place in our economy has a direct connection with war, and any stolen mite is a bullet directed to the back of our soldiers. We, the journalists, should be consistent on the move of those meters and mites and we should alarm when they get “lost” and not only make daily “sensational” and “exclusive” discoveries about political intrigues and rumors. The ministers should not “run” from the back door of the government sessions, but should patiently answer to the journalists’ questions. But we also should think to make our questions more or less meaningful.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
