Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan participated in the roundtable of the High-level International Conference on Information Integrity and Independent Media.
The discussion was held within the framework of the 8th Paris Peace Forum, which this year is taking place under the theme “New Coalitions for Peace, People and the Planet.”
Minister Mirzoyan: “We are meeting at a critical time when access to reliable information and independent media plays a crucial role in advancing democratic ideals, yet at the same time digital technologies and artificial intelligence are being instrumentalized for large scale fake news and disinformation campaigns.
Of course, like any democracy these days, Armenia is also facing a huge wave of hybrid threats.
Confronting these challenges has become a daily activity. There comes the dilemma and the delicate line between upholding the freedom of expression, pluralistic media from one side, and from the other side the decisiveness to confront the maline actors aiming to misuse the freedom and undermine the trust in the society, our democracy itself. We do recognize that those efforts will only increase as Armenia is heading towards parliamentary elections next year.
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So what is the key in this situation? Democracy itself, I believe. To protect the democracy in Armenia we should rely on democracy itself and the mechanisms it provides.
Of course, we cannot overcome this challenge alone. We have built and are working continuously towards enhanced like-minded partnerships which contribute to Armenia’s resilience.
Recognizing the importance of healthy information ecosystems in every part of the world, Armenia is taking a leadership role in the Partnership for Information and Democracy.”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia