The media sphere is completely under political control,” Vazgen Avetyan

Armenian media specialist Vazgen Avetyan, who has worked in the field of television and broadcasting for more than ten years, analyzing the media market and measuring ratings, warns that the Armenian media space has never been subject to such strict control and open pressure as it is now. The funny thing is that the country's political leader was a former journalist and press spokesman who once spoke loudly about press freedom issues and accused the then authorities of trying to silence them. Now, it seems, Pashinyan has forgotten about this and is striving to force the entire information field to serve his personal interests, or rather, to turn it into a propaganda machine for his government. In an interview with us, Vazgen Avetyan voiced the pressures and interference that, according to him, he encountered while participating in competitions for the vacant positions of executive director of Public Television in 2020 and chairman of the Committee for Labor and Trade in 2021. According to him, these processes were formally presented as open competitions, but in fact were under political control. A few days before the 2020 competition, during an informal conversation, he was told under what conditions his candidacy could receive support. “They made it clear to me that in order to get a position it is necessary to accept the political line proposed by the authorities, but as a specialist I could not agree with such conditions that limit the independence of the media,” notes Avetyan. According to him, a similar situation repeated itself in 2021, when a competition was announced for the position of head of the CRT. According to Avetyan, they also hinted to him that in order to win the competition he would need to cooperate with the authorities and maintain control over the media field; they even talked about closing opposition media outlets. “Such proposals contradict my professional principles and the idea of ​​media independence, so I categorically refused to accept the proposed conditions and actually lost the opportunity to occupy these positions,” Avetyan emphasizes. According to him, media independence and the safety of professionals are fundamental conditions of a democratic system, and violation of these values ​​should attract the attention of the international community. Let us remind you that the position of executive director of Public Television is currently occupied by Hovhannes Movsisyan, and Tigran Hakobyan was elected to the position of chairman of the Committee of Radio and Television. Both are known for their great devotion to the current authorities and their emphasized loyalty to Nikol Pashinyan and his political course.