On March 2nd employees of the National Security Service (NSS) made the rounds of various newspaper editorial offices and presented an unsigned and unstamped memo with which they threatened to close down any paper that published articles containing other than officially sanctioned information. That evening NSS employees minutely checked the content of various newspapers that had been sent to the printers. (These papers included “Haykakan Zhamanak” and “Chorrod Ishkhanutyun”) The NSS staffers present prevented the papers from being printed. A number of Internet papers and websites were obstructed and some papers voluntarily decided not to publish. One of these is “168 Zham”.

Satik Seyranyan, Chief Editor at “168 Zham” states that, “This is a position adopted by some papers since it really isn’t clear what is, or is not, official information. We consider it senseless to only publish police or court reports without printing the opposing side’s point of view the next day. Those reports are constantly being broadcast over the airways night and day. Why should we incur senseless printing expenses?”

The Chief Editor of “168 Zham” stresses one fact that she believes is one of the reasons for the events of March 1st. “The media didn’t give equal coverage to the opposition representatives when compared to that afforded the government’s. Had the T.V, print and electronic media succeeded in preserving that balance March 1st wouldn’t have happened. Many people went to Freedom Square just to find out what was going on due to the information deficit.

Tigran Farmanyan, Chief Editor of the “Republic of Armenia” newspaper doesn’t believe that the State of Emergency could have been declared without that Sub-Point 4 because, “in that case it would have been possible to state that no soldiers were to appear, that vehicles entering Yerevan couldn’t be inspected. If we continued like that nothing would be accomplished. In other words, I didn’t see any other way of getting ourselves out of the situation.” Farmanyan is also convinced that Point 4 of the President’s decree, “doesn’t violate any principle in the Human Rights Charter of the European Convention; it’s merely an internal legal ruling.”

The opposition mass media asserts that with Point 4 and Sub-Point 4 included in the State of Emergency the authorities have transformed the news industry into a one-sided affair and that only anti-opposition information is freely being disseminated. Mr. Farmanyan, commenting on the protest regarding this one-sidedness, says that, “In that case they should also protest that there are soldiers in the streets. It’s a State of Emergency that affects us all, including the mass media.”

Presently, the “Aravot” daily newspaper also isn’t being published. On March 3rd, Ruben Harutyunyan, an employee at theYerevan Department of the NSS, paid a visit to Aravot’s Chief Editor Aram Abrahamyan and reminded him about Sub-Point 4 in the State of Emergency decree. Mr. Abrahamyan noted that they were preparing to print a blank issue of the newspaper. Mr. Harutyunyan protested, arguing that this would be considered a political statement. Mr. Abrahamyan decided to temporarily halt publication of Aravot rather than merely printing officially sanctioned information.

The paper “Golos Armenia” is facing a similar conundrum. Deputy Chief Editor Levon Ghazaryan considers it noteworthy that their position is often at odds with the opposition in a number of issues. “For 15 years we’ve been the most persistent opponent of the Armenian National Movement and we don’t see any reason to change today. On the contrary, we are convinced that we were right all along and that recent events bear us out.” He relayed to us that the paper is functioning as usual, albeit with a different content.

Mr. Ghazaryan believes that we are not experiencing censorship today. In his view censorship occurs when a given institution either permits or prevents a paper from publishing any material before publication. “This isn’t the case today. Newspapers are simply being checked before publication and a decision is taken afterwards. We wanted to find out what would happen if we went ahead and published news not viewed as permissible by them. They told us - the first time it happens we’ll warn you; we’ll see what happens if you try it a second time.

Regarding the closure of Radio Liberty’s broadcasts and website, the Golos Editor remarked that, “Radio Liberty is a foreign news outlet and foreign outlets have no right to meddle in our election procedures. In general, it has no right to comment on those issues, to put it mildly.”

Also shut down after the State of Emergency went into effect were the online newspapers “A1+” and “Lragir”. Levon Ghazaryan believes that if the rules were violated before the shut-down then it was a question of the law being enforced. If, on the other hand, the online sites didn’t break any rules then the ‘swift action’ of law enforcement was incorrect because you know very well what “A1+” would have said. Wait, let it speak.”

“A1:” did speak out after the decree was enacted but it didn’t say anything that would have warranted it being shut-down. This was born out by the President’s Press Secretary who, during a meeting with journalists on March 7th,  stated that, “In many websites, for example “A1+”, on the very same day of the decree, there was a notice in the paper that they wouldn’t be publishing political articles, only sports and cultural news. Perhaps they couldn’t find anything else. I really haven’t studied the matter of whether websites are functioning or not but I do have information stating that many news outlets have voluntarily shut down because they have various problems in conforming to the decree’s directives.”

This is what Mesrob Movsesyan, the Director at “A1+”, says about the matter. “When Robert Kocharyan declared the State of Emergency the staff at A1+ accepted it as a normal manifestation of the Office of the Presidency and not a decision reached by a given individual. We published a bulletin in our site that the decree required us to only publish news from a single source and that, of course, it was something we didn’t want to do. Today that bulletin is being used by the authorities to say that “A1+” itself has accepted the decree in a law-abiding manner and shut down its website. But we have proof and documentation showing that A1+ was taken off line according to a directive sent to all providers. Let me add that not only was our site disconnected but that our web address has all but been erased.”

The A1+ Director agrees that an information vacuum now exists in Armenia and that it will have negative consequences. “The current regime will suffocate in that vacuum because the news reaching the people is totally at odds with their declarations. The regime is entering into this paradox and creating a conflict situation. The authorities once again tried to heap the blame on the opposition but this can only last for so long. This state of utter vacuum will lead to a point where the regime will resign. The current regime is utilizing the methods of crude, brute force. This is how they want to sway the minds of the people. However, brute force does exactly the opposite, it illuminates the mind. One only needs a bit of intelligence to understand this.”

Mr. Movsesyan states that Robert Kocharyan should have signed the decree without the inclusion of Sub-Point 4. “The notion of freedom of speech exists and the law presupposes a functioning press even during State of Emergency periods….A one-sided situation state of affairs has been created that day and night is engaged in one thing only - to wash and cleanse the facial veneer of the authorities.”


Edik Baghdasaryan, the Editor-in-Chief of the “Hetq” online newspaper states that, “We are on a forced hunger strike. This is how I described the present situation of Armenian journalists to a European colleague of mine. He asked me what you journalists were doing.  I answered back just what you would be doing in the same situation. That’s to say complying with the law on the one hand, and, on the other, violating it, struggling against it. It’s clear that the law only applies to one side. Sadly, those news outlets for whom “it is permissible to write everything”, in essence continue to conduct business as usual. The State of Emergency hasn’t cast its shroud over them. Simple logic would argue that it’s these very outlets that should have been thinking about removing this inequality. Tragically, they don’t comprehend the urgency of the matter.”

Baghdasaryan continues, “As was the case three months ago, I hold the media that has become the captive of both the regime and political forces, responsible for the state of affairs that has developed in Armenia today. The media, both in the pre and post election cycles, was politicized to the extreme and was divided into opposing camps. Armenia’s Public T.V. directed this march. It was the champion of dividing and polarizing the society and remains so today, dragging the rest of the T.V. stations behind it. This situation will not change given that these stations still perceive a politically active segment of the society as the enemy.”

On the 12th day of the State of Emergency the directors of thirteen media outlets issued a public statement declaring that, “The authorities of the Republic of Armenia have simply prevented news outlets that they deem undesirable from operating.” Describing this move by the regime as ‘informational terror’ the directors declared that, “…all this not only will inhibit an easy of societal tensions but it will exacerbate the atmosphere of hate and enmity.” The overwhelming majority of those news outlets and especially those media mouthpieces broadcasting so-called official information merely serve to inflame unhealthy sentiments and intensify the mistrust the people have regarding the government. In the current situation our constitutional right both to freely disseminate and receive information has been trampled under foot. The universally recognized principles regarding freedom of speech and assembly have been contravened. News outlets have incurred material losses. Censorship is being practiced in Armenia and our country has found itself smack dab in the middle of a complete news blackout.

The journalists are preparing to petition the Constitutional Court regarding that section of the State of Emergency that places restrictions on the mass media. They also will be seeking compensation for the losses incurred during this period of obligatory down-time.

Yesterday President Robert Kocharyan signed a decree according to which Point 4 and Sub-Point 5 included in the State of Emergency Declaration are no longer in force. These points had stated that, “Leaflets and other forms of political propaganda are prohibited from usage without the express permission of corresponding government institutions.”

Point 4 and Sub-Point 4 of the same Declaration, regarding restrictions on the mass media, have been reworded thusly, “Regarding issues relating to the government and domestic political affairs, the mass media is proscribed from publishing information that is blatantly false or that serves to destabilize the current situation; from making appeals to participate in illegal public events without informing the proper authorities; as well as publishing or disseminating such information through other methods.

Yesterday, after this decree, oppositional papers that hadn’t been publishing decided to go to the printers with an edition. However, employees of the National Security Service present at the “Tigran Medz” and “Gind” print shops prevented the papers from seeing the light of day.

“Gind” refused to accept the following papers on the mere say-so of NSS employees who failed to present any basis for such a step: Haykakan Zhamanak, Hayk, Hraparak, Chorrod Ishkhanutyun and Zhamanak Yerevan. Armineh Ohanyan, Chief Editor of Hraparak, related that the NSS people simply said ‘The paper mustn’t be printed’.

The same answer was given to the other papers. According to Aydin Murikyan, Editor of the Zhamanak Yerevan daily, employees of the paper on the scene tried to find out the reason for the refusal and that the NSS representative neither offered a written or verbal explanation. Mr. Murikyan states that given all this they’ll wait it out until the State of Emergency is lifted.

Hayk Gevorgyan, an official at Haykakan Zhamanak, didn’t rule out the possibility that they’d go to the printers again next week.

Aram Abrahamyan, Chief Editor of Aravot, recounts that an employee of the NSS present at the Tigran Medz Printers checked the content of the paper that included interviews with Levon Ter-Petrosyan and a report from one of the local hospitals. The ‘hero’ of the hospital piece recounted how ten policemen attacked him near the Opera and beat him without cause. The paper also placed a photo of the man in the article. The NSS representative declared that the story was blatantly false and prohibited its publication. Aram Abrahamyan believes that the change made to the State of Emergency Declaration is ‘senseless’. Aravot will also wait for the Emergency ban to be lifted.