STATEMENT
Today, 24News.am journalist Meri Manukyan, who was covering the protest of Kazakh village, was assaulted by a police officer on duty to maintain the legality of the action and public order. After the incident, which took place during a live broadcast, has unfortunately recently become public, the special forces officer known as red beret who hit the journalist was dismissed from his job shortly after.
By the way, the same police officer in 2023. showed impudent behavior towards a citizen and remained unpunished.
Moreover in 2022, the commander of the Special Forces battalion of the Yerevan City Administration, police lieutenant colonel Haykaz Jomardyan, used brute force to bring the parents of those killed in the 44-day war to Yerablur and not only was he not punished, but a year later he was awarded a gold medal by Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan.
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Here is everything you need to know about these authorities. There are many similar examples.
It is noteworthy that journalists and media outlets are also targeted by Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan. In particular, within the framework of her “stupid-lousy” campaign, Anna Hakobyan targeted Hayeli.am founder, journalist Angela Tovmasyan, and Politik.am founder, journalist Boris Murazi with obscene, vulgar, street language, calling them names with expressions not characteristic of her status.
Other journalists have also been targeted by Anna Hakobyan.
Not far behind them is his chief of staff, Arayik Harutyunyan, who plays a key role in Nikol Pashinyan’s team. He made two offensive, hateful posts about Aza Babayan, a former journalist at Azatutyun Radio and now a journalist at News.am, simply because the latter “dared” to say during an interview with Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, “Imagine that in future textbooks they will write that Armenians lost their independence because a hooligan came to power. That is terrible.”
“Disaster… Until recently, this lady worked at Azatutyun Radio. Just look at her journalistic professionalism. And this is a fact, not a comment,” wrote Arayik Harutyunyan, a prominent representative of the ruling party, the Civil Contract (CC), and then a day later made a new post regarding the same person and the same interview: “I present a new disaster. A journalist by the name of Aza Babayan, who has been in a hot seat at Azatutyun Radio for decades, calls to “take up the sword against the internal enemy.” And she, being the bearer of this terrible value system, has not resisted for decades while consuming the money of American taxpayers, those Americans for who the fight against violence and anti-democratic values is a priority.”
Targeting experienced journalist Aza Babayan had a specific goal: to target and unleash a hate campaign against the journalist under the post and the media outlets that spread it.
The practice of depriving the journalist of his journalistic accreditation, by direct order of the Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan, and excluding his presence in the given area, was also implemented during the reign of these authorities, which they first did towards Ani Gevorgyan, Suzi Badoyan, and now they continue to do towards MediaHub.am journalist Vahe Makaryan.
The practice of hindering a journalist’s work by depriving them of their accreditation is highly condemnable, especially when it is challenged in court, and what happened to Vahe Makaryan is a blatant expression of the government’s intolerance and vindictiveness.
It is already a classic attempt to silence the media by suing them and placing a huge financial burden on their shoulders, another example of which is Nikol Pashinyan’s public promise to sue Hraparak daily. Moreover, this is not the first case when Nikol Pashinyan himself or his close circle has targeted Hraparak daily, its journalists, and its editor-in-chief, Armine Ohanyan.
The Union of Journalists of Armenia strongly condemns the campaign against media outlets and journalists, targeting them, and persecution that began in 2018 and is showing new and despicable manifestations every day. Armenia has long been far from democratic values, and the authorities are using any means as a bludgeon to restrict free speech and hinder the activities of the media, including through legislative restrictions.
It is clear that the media and journalists pose the greatest threat to the government, due to the nature of their work, but journalists will continue to perform their professional work despite any, even seemingly insurmountable, obstacles.
Realizing that we are working in a non-standard situation and under extraordinary conditions, understanding the scale of the existential dangers facing our country, we call on the media and journalists to maintain composure under any circumstances, not to give in to provocations, and to work within the bounds of journalistic ethics.
UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF ARMENIA
