DID THE ICE BREAK AT LAST?
Lragir, Armenia
Oct 25 2007
The television boycott of the press clubs of Yerevan for over a week
was partly lifted on October 25. Today news conferences were held
in two of them, the Friday Club and the Hayeli Club, the political
scientist Alexander Iskandaryan held a news conference at the Friday
Club, and the heads of the municipalities of three communities of
Yerevan held a news conference at the Hayeli Club. Yerkir Media and
ALM showed up at the news conference in Hayeli, H1 and Shant TV showed
up at the Friday Club.
The reporters were surprised. The point is that no TV reporter
had been seen at the press clubs since October 15 except Yerkir
Media which covered the news conferences of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
activists. They say the government instructed the TV channels boycott
the press clubs. Indeed, both the government and the TV channels
denied the information about compulsion, and offered other excuses.
Surprisingly, however, all the TV channels boycotted the press clubs
at the same time.
The two cameras in each club today make think that the boycott has been
stopped. However, it is early to state for sure because it is not known
yet why the TV channels went, why they came and did they really come?