On December 16, in the corridor near the hall of the National Assembly, several camera crew members were sitting on chairs and checking their phones when NA Speaker Alen Simonyan passed through that section. Apparently, the latter did not like the position of the camera crew, who were sitting with their legs crossed, and after passing by, Simonyan turned around, took pictures of the camera crew with his phone, and left.
Minutes later, at his instruction, the NA staff came to the NA corridor and started taking the chairs on which the journalists and mass media representatives were sitting.
When the journalists asked the NA leadership what was going on and why they were removing the chairs, they told us that the camera crew members were sitting clumsily. The situation was so incomprehensible that we tried to meet with the NA Speaker to find out, for example, what we, the journalists, did, and why we have to stand on our feet and write our material like that or work while being deprived of basic working conditions: a chair.
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Alen Simonyan’s reasoning was the following: when camera crew or journalists see a deputy, they should stand up. According to him, this is how we should respect the institution. As an example, he said, “Let’s say I passed through that corridor with the President of Cyprus.”
Moreover, Alen Simonyan managed to read the Facebook post of the Aravot journalist after his order to take the seats, the insulting comments under it and started arguing: How did you write that status so fast while sitting down? I said that I wrote it while standing up. Alen Simonyan said, “And you’ll write your articles standing like that from now on.”
The NA Speaker’s spokesperson commented that the operators had shown a disrespectful attitude; they were just sitting on the chairs with their legs crossed and they did not stand up. According to the speaker, the camera crew who had shown such an attitude apologized, while the other member of the camera crew said, “Sorry, if you meant me, I was busy on the phone and did not notice who passed.”
When, after that short meeting, we tried to find out whether we should bring bean bag chairs to the National Assembly tomorrow to sit on, or whether he would return the seats anyway, Alen Simonyan replied that he would decide for himself.
The journalists were forced to work sitting on the floor of the corridor of the National Assembly, carrying out that unique “punishment,” which is not defined by any legal act. Although it is not too late to make a new decision that from now on, journalists in the National Assembly should stand as a sign of absolute respect, bow their heads, and only look up when the deputy enters their office.
P.S. By the end of the day, the chairs were already returned to their places.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
