NEWSPAPERS AND MEDIA IN ARMENIA ARE NEITHER WORSE NOR BETTER THAN FOREIGN PRESS, THEY ARE PRINCIPALLY DIFFERENT, LOCAL EXPERT SAYS
arminfo
2007-07-26 17:21:00
Newspapers and media in Armenia are neither worse nor better than
foreign press, they are principally different, Director of Caucasian
Media Institute, political expert Aleksander Iskandaryan said at
the conference "Media and Democratization Process in Armenia,"
Thursday. The event organizer was the Kondard Adenauer Foundation
(Germany) in Central Asia and South Caucasus.
He called myth the opinion that government censorship hinders
media development in Armenia and leads to small circulation of
newspapers. For instance, the expert said that the newspaper USA
Today has the largest circulation in the United States i.e. over 1
million copies. The run-length of Armenian newspapers is 5-12,000
copies. Comparing these figures with the population size in Armenia
and the USA, the circulation of newspapers in Armenia is higher than
in America, Aleksander Iskandaryan said. Pluralism is rather high
in Armenia and there is no government pressure on the press. If a
newspaper like Armenian The Fourth Power"is published in the USA, its
editor would be imprisoned immediately. How one can say that Georgian
press is better than Armenian if few can read in Georgian in Armenia,
while many read in Armenian in Georgia, the expert said.
The problem of press in Armenia is that newspapers and media (except
news agencies) are NGOs financed by politicians or parties and do not
care for circulation and rating. "It is not press, but something other,
no matter good or bad, it is different," Iskandaryan said.
The situation rests upon economic factor for the press cannot develop
isolated from the public. "It’s absurd comparing the Armenian and
Russian press. There is a principle in Russia i.e. what Moscow
will neglect Khabarovsk will read. In the meanwhile, there is no
Khabarovsk in Armenia; it is a small modest country, " Aleksander
Iskandaryan said.