I first heard the phrase “No filming here” addressed to me in August 1990. Mesrop Movsesyan and I were covering the events related to the Armenian National Army (ANA). A group of armed people gathered outside the appliance center, and another group of armed people gathered outside the Erebuni hotel. Representatives of both groups would “urge” us holding automatic weapons in their arms not to film. Both in this case and in the future, I did not care so much about who was right and who was wrong in this conflict or other arguments; we needed to equally present the opinions of both sides, which we eventually did. I am sure that even today, after 23 years, the “descendants” of the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) and the ANA will oppose to this balance and will say that they were right. However, the important for a journalist is to cover the events; the rest is just seasoning.
I recalled this story yesterday with regard to the use of violence against my young colleague Hakob Karapetyan. Naturally, no one had explained to the neighborhood plug-ugly who was organizing Taron Margaryan’s meeting with the residents in this case that in such cases, no one has the right to prevent a journalist from filming. Although I understand that Turbo (Ashot Papayan) and the other “Turbo-like” members of the mob feel uneasy when their activities become public; probably deep down, they are ashamed of how they “earn their living.” However, I am sure that there are people in the party, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), who are capable of explaining all that, who know that given the level of the internet’s development, the pictures of the, to put it mildly, not so pleasant faces of “Turbos” will be spread and disseminated anyway; they also know that impeding a journalist’s work is an offense punishable by the law. I don’t know why they don’t explain; perhaps they don’t bother. I don’t care at all whether the journalist who was attacked is from www.ilur.am or www.slaq.am, whether the covered campaign was that of the RPA or, say, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF); the government and the opposition, revolutionaries and conservatives change places so often that one hardly manages to follow. It is important for me that we, journalists, are able to cover the reality and to communicate it to society, and “seasoning” can be added by politicians or politicized people, it doesn’t matter. In this sense, I
want to pay attention to a very important fact. Was Hakob the only journalist who was holding a camera during that incident? Guess what would have happened, if 10 cameras had filmed the actions of the mob and then broadcasted them. Would they have ventured to take away the cameras of 10 journalists?
…There was an American short movie in the 1960s called “The Incident” about how two punks board a subway car and terrorize more than ten passengers. However, each of them tries to solve only his problem.
Read also
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
