Russian media in Armenia may face restrictions: they do not praise Pashinyan
The Armenian leaders who came to power on the wave of protests are dissatisfied with how the Russian press describes the new order in the republic.
Columnist Alexander Rostovtsev writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator.
Pashinyan’s associates are offended by the Russian media. Their programs allegedly contain “anti-Armenian content.” On April 10, at a meeting of the permanent parliamentary commission on science, education, culture, diaspora, youth and sports, Narine Tukhikyan, a member of the ruling “My Step” bloc, raised the issue, but did not give specific examples. However, the deputy put forward an initiative on the possibility of introducing restrictions on the broadcasting of “Russia-1”, “First” and “Mir” in Armenia.
Observers believe that the reason for the deputy’s request was the reports of the federal Russian television channels “Russia-24”, “Pervy”, NTV and TVC on March 28, which questioned the legality of the criminal case against ex-President Robert Kocharyan.
Chairman of the National Commission on Television and Radio Tigran Hakobyan, to whom the deputy’s request was addressed directly, answered quite interestingly:
"I agree with you. This creates a certain threat to the information security of Armenia.” The official further recalled that some countries, like Georgia and Ukraine, have already implemented this idea, “but they had to pay a high price for it.” “The question is whether we are willing to do this and pay the same price as these countries. We must be able to balance, because at the moment we have enough other important problems. Perhaps the time will come when we will be in a better position and will be able to implement this idea, but now its implementation is undesirable.”
In general, the refusal turned out to be somehow ambiguous, causing a residue of some reticence, so that on April 15, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Pashinyan, personally ran out to the media to clarify the swirling bureaucratic and parliamentary muddle with the future of the Russian media in Armenia.
Answering a question from journalists that he (Pashinyan) is often criticized in the Russian media for political persecution, the Maidan Prime Minister said the following:
“Both Armenian and Russian media are free in Armenia. Although now there are opinions that foreign media in Armenia should not be as free as Armenian ones. But every television company, any state, must realize that broadcasting on the territory of another country presupposes the boundaries of a certain correctness.”
Further, Pashinyan expressed hope that the Russian media will take into account these circumstances and draw appropriate conclusions, but at the same time, “no one limits anyone’s right to express their own opinion” and hoped that “when the case (of Kocharyan) comes to court, then the international community will will see everything."
In general, it turned out to be dreary, as always, Pashinyan’s way. On the one hand, “no one limits anyone,” on the other, “they must be aware of the boundaries.” Such “pluralism of opinions” gives reason to believe that the first parliamentary foray will be followed by a second, a third, and then everywhere else until the system reacts “as it should,” since there is a request from the ruling bloc in parliament to restrict the work of the Russian media in Armenia, and the official, The person in charge of television and radio broadcasting in the republic called on the impatient to wait for “better times.”
The situation, frankly speaking, has an unpleasant odor and betrays the consumerist attitude towards Russia of our ally in Transcaucasia, who is accustomed to receiving Russian military and economic assistance on preferential terms, but can hardly tolerate the slightest criticism.
Despite the fact that in Armenia, in principle, the question of limiting or stopping the work of foreign NGOs/NGOs on its territory, including the Soros Foundation, is not raised, and the Soros organically fit into the new republican government at all levels.
And, for starters, one more interesting news from Armenia.
As you know, Pashinyan and his associates came to power on a wave of civil discontent caused by corruption and living beyond their means by representatives of the old government of Armenia. Pashinyan took advantage of the crowd’s greed for populist slogans, promising that the government under his leadership would be transparent, modest and transferred to Spartan standards of allowance.
In other words, Pashinyan’s people promised to stretch their legs for clothes.
With the advent of new authorities, allocations for festive events and festivities were sharply reduced in Armenia. In particular, Yerevan Day in August 2018, despite the anniversary date (2800 years since its founding), was quite modest. It seemed to many then that the pompous celebrations had come to an end.
However, at an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly on April 9, in the second and final reading, the deputies made a number of changes and additions to the law “On Holidays and Memorable Dates”, as a result of which April 23 in Armenia is now declared the national holiday “Citizen’s Day”, dedicated to the anniversary since the victory of the Ara-Maidan and the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan.
Last Thursday, the government, based on the decision of parliament, gave the go-ahead to transfer 124 million drams to organize a new holiday.
Translated into hard currency, the amount of a quarter and a half million dollars does not look stunning. Much more important is that it is several times higher than the budget allocated for the celebration of the 2800th anniversary of Yerevan, which means that the Armenian maydauns love themselves more than their ancient capital.
The reasons for making these decisions are transparent and very humanly understandable. After all, if you celebrate the anniversary of the street coup modestly - with goat cheese, pita bread and sour wine under your breath, then the population may get the false feeling that nothing special happened on April 23, 2018. And since the new holiday is organized for a small price, then its life is not long. Because, as you know, if you don’t praise yourself, no one will either...
Russian media in Armenia may face restrictions: they do not praise Pashinyan.