Speaking at a press conference today on the state of journalism in Armenia, Hetq Chief Editor Edik Baghdasaryan noted that the "yellow press" existed throughout the world and that the greater diversity of the press, the better. "There is much talk today about some papers violating ethical norms. But there are such violations in Great Britain, France and the United States, and it has never been a prime concern for those governments," Mr. Baghdasaryan said. "Those people are basically left alone. If there’s a demand for such papers and they have readers, then such a segment of the press should exist."

Mr. Baghdasryan then commented on the accessibility of information from various government agencies and noted that oftentimes the replies received are vague and general. "It’s absurd. In many cases we have to go back and ask for clarification of what such agencies and departments state. In general, state bodies are tight-lipped when it comes to providing specific answers," the Hetq Editor said and gave the example of the one million AMD watches presented to officials at the State Revenue Committee New Year’s party. "Who received the watches and where did the money come from. When you ask such specific questions, you don’t get any answers, Mr. Baghdasaryan said He said that a political decision must be passed for everything that happens in Armenia. Thus, he argued that when courts launch cases involving assaults and attacks on reporters, there is no political directive from on high to apprehend those responsible and the cases go unresolved. "When you cover criminal cases and start to dig, you come to the realization that what’s lacking is professionalism. Pre-trial criminal investigations are so poorly conducted and unsupervised that you say to yourself, who is investigating the investigators?" Baghdasaryan said. He argued that while journalist at least had the opportunity to write about violations of the law directed at them, there are people in the outlying regions of Armenia that have no such defense. "It’s a tossup. Sometimes we hear about their cases and sometimes they are never covered, or we find out about them months after the fact. Instead of focusing on the ethical misconduct of some papers, we should be focusing on the overall poor level of human rights in Armenia," argued Mr. Baghdasaryan.