Last week, the government decided to spend part of its EU grant on media reform to “reform” media legislation. The draft submitted by the government speaks of “creating a legal basis for receiving reliable and comprehensive information, protecting privacy, and establishing rules of journalistic ethics.” There are two more sentences in the draft on ethics to justify that these issues should be regulated by law. The interest in this field is probably explained by the fact that the current head of the government is an enthusiastic advocate of ethical norms, and the expressions “immoral rejects,” “crawlers under the walls,” “build,” and “drag” fit perfectly into those norms.
But that was probably a personal reason for “reforming” media legislation. There are also political motives. In order to understand them, it is necessary to recall what laws were adopted during these three years by the “immoral” National Assembly, and then by the Civil Contract majority regarding the media. Not only me, but many experts believe that all these laws are aimed at restricting freedom of speech. It is clear that it is not the word of the authorities that is limited, but those whose words and writings the authorities do not like. So legislative “reforms” are likely to be a new threat to the media. Just as the police are now interrogating people for allegedly “insulting” the authorities, so after those “reforms” they will do the same, for example, for violating “ethical norms.” As for the “reliable and comprehensive” information, there is no secret here either. The authorities consider such only the news that praises the “paradise” they have built.
But regardless of the political situation and the completely transparent intentions of the government, the regulation of ethical issues by law seems to me to be extremely controversial. If a person is poorly educated, if they do not respect themselves and do not moderate their written and oral speech, no legislation can hinder them, especially in this age of social networks. It is just that such a person should communicate with their peers, and educated people should have their own circle of contacts. And this is already a matter of self-regulation.
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Aram Abrahamyan
