The law enforcement agencies reacted quite operatively to the demonstrations of pro-government figures, arresting those who carried out the demonstrations. However, the same operativeness was not shown, for example, when Nikol Pashinyan’s security officer, Sargis Hovhannisyan, the head of the State Security Service, attacked the journalist-camera person. This is in the case when the journalistic organizations also made a statement, demanding to hold him accountable.
The guest of Aravot’s “Areresum (Confrontation)” program, the head of the Freedom of Information Center Shushan Doydoyan, who signed the statement, responding to the question why their appeal was ignored, said, “In fact, I do not have high hopes. Even if that criminal case had been initiated, I do not expect that in a short period of time he would have been involved as an accused and would have been prosecuted by an official who used violence against a journalist and interfered with his legal activities. And in our statement we especially emphasized that for so many years these incidents always seem to accompany tense political situations, but especially the high-ranking representatives of the police and law enforcement system did not learn to communicate properly, in good faith with the journalists carrying out their professional activities. And the other problem is that in general, impunity in such cases continues in post-revolutionary Armenia as well.”
The Civil Contract faction made a statement on April 12, expecting a clear assessment from the journalists’ organizations regarding the following incident. “Vahe Makaryan, accredited as a journalist by Hraparak Daily in the journalists’ working zone, voiced threats and insulting expressions to Vahagn Aleksanyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction.” However, the journalistic organizations did not respond to this statement in any way.
The other guest of the “Confrontation” program, Boris Navasardyan, the president of the Yerevan Press Club, said in particular: “If journalists in certain cases show inappropriate behavior, it is mainly in response to the statements or actions that come from the political elite, be it the opposition or government circles. And I think that the aggression that exists towards some deputies is conditioned by the fact that they have shown such behavior towards journalists with insulting expressions, etc. And if we try to study one by one how the journalists treat this or that deputy, and all the precedents that have taken place, we will not find at least one case when the journalists did something inadmissible towards the deputy who behaved decently.”
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And Artur Hovhannisyan, the secretary of the Civil Contract faction, told Medialab, “I did not see any disrespectful attitude of the deputies towards the journalists or any provocative actions to motivate the journalist to break the rules”, it was his colleague who called the journalists ‘verbal prostitutes.’ And both Arthur Hovhannisyan, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and even the Human Rights Defender Kristine Grigoryan defended that insult in their own way, as if it did not refer to all the journalists, but to the unscrupulous ones. This explanation is not enough for Shushan Doydoyan, “And it is not accidental that we are talking about the same deputy. He has positioned himself in such a way that it is scandalous, in some cases it goes beyond the limits of the deputy’s ethics.” “In many cases, he does it consciously,” Boris Navasardyan added.
Shushan Doydoyan emphasized, “We do not have at least one unique case when the deputy’s violation of ethical norms was examined by the ethics committee. That is, it was discussed, a certain assessment was given from within. Meanwhile, when the journalistic community makes statements on this or that incident, we always try to address those issues, to what extent the representatives of the community have expressed themselves within the framework of journalistic ethics.”
Boris Navasardyan added, “We are even criticized for mentioning the need for journalists to behave within the framework of professional ethics.” By the way, the Yerevan Press Club President gave a remarkable response when we were discussing the facts that the Prime Minister has no speaker, nor does he hold openly, non-discriminatory press conferences. “It seems to me that he prefers the situations where he is able to enjoy love,” said Mr. Navasardyan in particular. “Now there are more tense relations, there may be unpleasant issues, Nikol Pashinyan avoids those contacts, especially since he has other platforms to express his criticism, his aggressive, aggressive style, than press conferences, interviews.” We also talked to the heads of journalistic organizations about legislative initiatives related to the press, the criminalization of serious insults, and the assessments of international organizations on freedom of speech in Armenia.
The entire discussion is in the video.
Anna Israyelyan
