ArmenPress, Armenia Press aide makes evasive comments on Armenian PM's media remarks The following is the text of Nelli Babayan's report published on the website of the Armenian pro-opposition Aravot newspaper on 20 June headlined "'The TV company that ran an anti-state propaganda, will no longer do so, as it has realised its mistake': The prime minister's press secretary"; subheadings inserted editorially: The media outlet, which, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, is running anti-state propaganda, will no longer do so, the prime minister's press secretary, Arman Yeghoyan told Aravot.am. Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page on 18 June: "Certain TV companies, in fact making use of the unlimited possibility of the freedom of speech, have decided to carry out anti-state propaganda. This is perhaps one of those cases, when some people again and again confuse the civility of the authorities with weakness or naivety. Don't do that. Just don't do that". Aravot.am asked the prime minister's press secretary several questions. In particular, we asked, which TV company was waging anti-state propaganda and what were the specific manifestations of anti-state propaganda of the TV company. Yeghoyan refused to mention names: "I cannot add anything to what the prime minister said as regards names and cases. If the prime minister deems it convenient, he will make comments himself and give names. What I can say is that the prime minister's words did not apply and will never apply to criticism of the government. The prime minister will never reprimand any media outlet for criticising him". Yeghoyan did not give a specific response to our second question as to what anti-state propaganda might mean and what the prime minister implied: "Anti-state propaganda is anti-state propaganda". Answering our remark that the prime minister's and other users' Facebook pages circulated in comments the names of Yerkir Media [affiliated to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun] and the Kentron TV company [affiliated to businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, head of the Prosperous Armenia party and part of the Tsarukyan bloc], Yeghoyan said: "No, not Kentron either. And it is not Yerkir Media". Nevertheless, what are the threats for this TV company, if it continues to run anti-state propaganda? The prime minister's words sound as a threat and there is an allusion between the following lines: "confuse the civility of the authorities with weakness or naivety". Answering these questions of ours, Yeghoyan said: "The prime minister expressed his opinion, but there is no threat either in his direct speech or between the lines. It is just an appeal to concrete addressees and these addressees have already realised what they deliberately did and have realised this. The media outlets that do not regard themselves as addressees of the appeal do not have anything to worry about. Even those, who these words were addressed to, have nothing to worry about. They have already realised their mistake. If they want to make comments, there are no problems". Yeghoyan stressed: "There were no threats. It was an appeal not to misuse the broadness of the prime minister's thoughts". Asked as to what could happen if the opposite happened, the press secretary answered: "I have already said that nothing specific is going to happen. They will no longer misuse it". Asked as to how it had become clear that they had understood it - they apologised, called, or they no longer ran anti-state propaganda, Yeghoyan said: "This is based on common logic: When a person takes a step and the step becomes visible, the concrete person, who took the step, realises that the general statement is about him". Yeghoyan gave the following answer to our remark that the person could fail to understand that the general statement is addressed to him: "In this case, I am sure that they understood it, as we are dealing with very experienced people". Source: Aravot website, Yerevan, in Russian 1446 gmt 20 Jun 18