WE NEED TO TAKE THE TELEVISION
Naira Hayrumyan
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13:41:07 – 14/08/2009
The preparative works for the 1917 revolution in St. Petersburg were
described in the following way in the old schoolbooks: the Bolsheviks
first took under control the bridges, the post and the communications,
and only after, they attacked the Smolny Institute. Bridges for
St. Petersburg are important: if they are moved apart, troops cannot
move in the city. But the post and telephone are more important,
because politics and revolution are carried out through information.
In modern conditions, the force, which is going to make policy, must
first "take" the TV. According to the Armenian TV channels, there is
no political opposition in the country. A person not having access
to other media means, who every evening watches TV, is convinced that
everything in our country is very well, and even if there are problems,
we successfully overcome them. Our president speaks on the phone
with Joe Biden and Dmitry Medvedev, Gagik Tsarukyan communicates with
Lukashenko as equals, banks give loans to everyone who wants, and only,
what the hell, the hail does not rest, and wolves keep attacking sheep.
The fact that there is a large group of people in the country, with
their own vision of world, who are not afraid of thinking and even
dreaming, the TV viewers do not know. Neither about the fact that
one may be freer and not to be afraid of traffic police officials,
judges, the mayor’s office, bosses, dogs in gateways. These people
have access only to the pages of some print newspapers, and a pair
of electronic sites. Altogether, the number of readers of newspapers
and websites does not constitute the 1 per cent of the number of TV
viewers in the country. And, mostly those, who write for the sites,
read the Internet sites. As a friend of mine said, we write, we read.
The situation was somewhat rescued by the radio "Liberty". The evening
news of the "Liberty", station may be heard in public transport almost
every evening. People listen to "other" news, and then discuss them
in full buses. Then they listen to the same news on TV and think that
it is about another country.
The political and civil forces, which intend to change the
situation in the country, should first think about opening an
alternative television. It is not by chance that the power is doing
everything for no one be able to go on the air on an independent
television. Television is the power. Activities of opposition and
civil society are possible only in case of the presence of a private
TV channel and this should be the first goal.
It seems that in case of a focused and hard struggle with the
assistance of international organizations one may achieve the
elimination of the deprivation of citizens’ rights to television. Only
this decision of the parliament is enough to announce the government
undemocratic. When the opposition (meaning not only the Armenian
National Congress) will have its own channel, it will be possible to
make policy.
Now an Armenian man has to listen to carefully selected news from the
global flow of information messages, watch TV and faceless shows and
record the numbers of "passionate girls".