Regardless of what will come of this new wave of post-election tension, I can surely say one thing; I will work as a journalist, anyway. Predicting the wrath of our fundamental readers, I can also add that it has become easier to work in our field in the past 5 years than before. I am sure that if Raffi Hovhannisyan becomes president, he will not restrain us either. In that sense, I sense a threat from only one person; you know whom I mean.
And although some problems related to the freedom of speech have been solved, one problem still remains, and I want to write about that very thing. There is a social stratum in Armenia – criminals, semi-criminals, neighborhood gangsters, tough guys, plug-uglies, whatever you call them the essence is the same. Photographing those people, filming them is not that easy; they hang out in their houses, drive their expensive Jeeps, as well as visit the kebab diners they prefer “to grab a bite to eat.” In the last case, those characters may decide to record their dancing to the songs of Hayko of Spitak, but that video will not be made public.
The only moment when that “mass” appears in public, so to say, is the elections; they are chairmen, secretaries, and members of commissions, authorized persons, “people bringers,” bribers, members of campaign offices etc. Once or twice in five years, they should serve the government, after which they can retire to their nests and enjoy their kebabs. And since our elections should be a transparent process – Europeans demand it – one can photograph them on that day. Is it possible? It turns out that this possibility is just theoretical, because they react to the camera in the same way as a bull to a red cloth. It seems there’s nothing wrong; if you perform your duties honestly and conscientiously or you are an ordinary voter, why would you go ballistic and start to yell, “Don’t you even try to shoot me, or else I will smash that camera against your head.” But no, you get angry, because you are guilty. Therefore, there are a lot of cases of impeding the mass media when police officers naturally take sides with the tough guys. Certainly, the prosecutor’s office, considering those cases, “doesn’t reveal” any corpus delicti.
I propose to create a group on Facebook called “Don’t Shoot, or Else I Will Smash Your Head In,” where all faces swollen due to kebabs will be uploaded, in order that we enjoy looking at those characters every day.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
