Media Advocate initiative expresses its concern following the Social Network discussions over the 5th channel.

The statement runs as follows:

Some SM users demand that the TV station suspends its activity. According to the monitoring results, the public-political representatives claim that the campaign against the TV company is controlled by the authorities.

“Media Advocate” initiative considers such a manifestation of hate speech unacceptable. In fact, dissent and criticism of the government are condemned, the right to speech, thought and free will are simply violated. With such manifestations, the society does not contribute to the formation of a free society, it opposes journalistic work instead.

The media outlets are free to express their will, and the work of a journalist may contain criticism of the government, but it should not be a reason to launch a large-scale campaign against the TV company.

By the way, today the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan expressed concern over the hate speech manifestation. He also referred to the action of targeting the journalists, noting: “Journalists are often identified with the person who they interview and actually are being targeted because of that. There are certain stereotypes about the work of a journalist, for example, that a journalist hinders the work of any body. It’s just a stereotype, one should adopt a principle of working properly with a journalist, based on the assumption that a journalist contributes to the work.”

In fact, the Human Rights Defender also expresses his concern over the situation and the initiated campaign against freedom of speech.