The reputed human rights organization Freedom House has concluded again that Armenia is a country with non-free press. I don’t know according to what criteria the assessment is made. However, insofar as I follow the mass media in Turkey and Georgia (where the press is partly free), frankly speaking, I cannot notice that we are much behind the neighbors. Certainly, my observation may be amateur, but at the moment, I, for example, don’t see that there is any restraint of expressing opposition opinions on any TV channel. You would say that it is because the Europeans’ pre-election monitoring. Certainly, it is, but during the 2008 presidential election, the same monitoring was carried out and during the “responsible” broadcasting, in the so-called “editorial reviews,” the opposition was labeled, assessed, including subjects related to the flag of Israel and Judeo-Masonry conspiracy. Yes, A1+ doesn’t broadcast via television now either and it is one of the biggest drawbacks of the current government. But it seems not fair to me not to notice certain “limited progress” (with the definition common in the West). By the way, that progress would be registered also by the fact that after the election, regardless of its outcome, those who make decisions would understand that it would not be the end of the world if oppositionists appeared on TV.
A manifestation of that same “limited progress” is the President’s interference in the issue of Mashtots Park. Certainly, it would be much better, if the country leader didn’t interfere in such issues and the issue was resolved in the legal field – one cannot build booths in the central park, period. Likewise, it would be much better, if prisoners of conscience were not pardoned by the President, but were acquitted – one cannot condemn people for expressing political views. However, the, to put it mildly, defects of our state system require that problems are solved from above and not in the normal, legal way. Anyway, at the end of the day, the important thing is the result – there will be no pavilions in Mashtots Park.
Is what Serzh Sargsyan did pre-election PR? Probably it is. However, imagine, if a PR specialist the best and most famous in the world had advised the previous president to take that step. Where would Robert Kocharyan have sent that PR specialist?
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
