PROPAGANDA OR REAL REVELATION
James Hakobyan

Lragir.am
12:09:55 – 19/11/2008

Apparently, beating reporters is becoming a tradition in
Armenia. During the presidency of Serge Sargsyan, the assault on the
chair of the Association of Investigative Journalists is a recurrent
case of violence against reporters in a very short period of time,
about half a year. This means either Serge Sargsyan prefers this
manner of settling scores with the press or someone else prefers,
who wants to stain Serge Sargsyan, his statements about tolerance,
the sincerity of his messages. However, insofar as the incidents
involving the reporter of the Haykakan Zhamanak Lusine Barseghyan,
the reporter of Radio Liberty Hrach Melkumyan, for instance, have
not been revealed, the public has every reason to suggest that Serge
Sargsyan prefers this manner of relating to the media, otherwise he
would pursue punishment of those who assault reporters. It is possible
that Serge Sargsyan does not have the possibility. Maybe he does not
control the situation sufficiently to be able to order law enforcers
to reveal those cases. In that case, however, if Serge Sargsyan does
not have this possibility, how is he going to function as guarantor
of state security?

It is possible that Edik Baghdasaryan’s case will be revealed. The fact
that the prime minister visited him at the hospital allows supposing
that the government intends to use the violence against=2 0the reporter
for its own PR. Therefore, it is not ruled out that this case will be
revealed in the framework of this intention, and the wrongdoers will
be revealed and punished. Moreover, it should not be ruled out that the
government will use the violence against the reporter to settle scores
inside the government. No doubt, the reporter was beaten by people
who carried out the order of some set in the government. The point is
that Edik Baghdasaryan publishes stories about officials, revealing
their corrupt activities. Logically, one of those sets has decided
either to prevent another publication or to punish for a previous
publication. Consequently, the government may use the opportunity,
like it did by visiting the patient, to put pressure on a group or a
definite person by revealing the crime. At least, this is possible,
and may come true, especially that the unprecedented response of the
prime minister seems to be half the job.

However, the revelation should not be considered as a change of the
real attitude of the government towards this phenomenon. The point
is that the government may reveal one of the three cases, or two
of the five cases. This does not mean that the government does not
tolerate violence against reporters. It is ingenuous to think that the
government does not tolerate beating as a way of settling scores unless
every case is revealed, unless the previous cases have been revealed,
un less all the attempts of settling scores by beating people in
the streets in Armenia which count over a dozen in the past six or
seven months have been revealed. Moreover, by selective revelations
the government will show that it also can use those assaults for
settling scores.