Member of the initiative “We pay 100 drams” Ruzanna Grigoryan does not accept that a few days ago during the discussion with the President of the Public Council Vazgen Manukyan at Mashtots Park, the activists of the movement have hindered the work of some media. “The TV companies, to whom we boycotted, have constantly presented distorted information, or kept silence to the appropriate time, or made a manipulation of information. Our boycott was justified, by the way, it was the will of participants of the public meeting at the park, it was not somebody’s arbitrary decision, no one objected. No one removed media from the grove, they were rejected to shoot the assembly,”- said R. Grigoryan, claiming that their decision does not contain any violence in ethics, and the law. Referring to the response of some media organizations denouncing this step, R. Grigoryan continued, – “I think those are the organizations that are primarily responsible for the establishment of the right to free speech in Armenia, and it is somehow their responsibility that we have appeared in this situation.
I will claim for all journalists and companies protecting the interests of media to accept the incident as a challenge, to accept that there is indeed a problem of the right of free speech in Armenia, and there is a clear complaint among the public towards the journalists of such directed, not impartial, biased working style, and let them become self-organized, and try to find ways to solve this problem.” To the criticisms that it was an appropriate step for the movement of democratic nature to interfere with the work of the media, the activist countered,- “Our boycott was justified and was directed to the TV companies, which are constantly spreading anti-democratic values and legitimize the illegality, violence spreading authoritarian system. They bear the responsibility for the culture of currently existing authoritarian violence.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
Photo from Ruzanna Grigoryan’s Facebook page.
