A1 Plus Anniversary Protest Rally, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2004

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) has a very depressing story on the state of the broadcast media here. Unlike the print media in Armenia, the TV stations offer very little plurality in terms of information or news at all. Moreover, perhaps with the exception of Yerkir Media TV which is admittedly linked to the ARF-D, every other major station is in the pocket of officials or businessmen close to the ruling regime.

As a result, there is no real news on Armenian TV and as this article explains, journalists and editors practise self-censorship rather than risk losing their jobs and income. Interestingly, the situation appears to be far worse in this regard than in Azerbaijan and Georgia, although they too now seem to be following Armenia’s example (see articles here and here).

That said, when I was in Tbilisi a few months ago, the situation was incomparable. As I said, perhaps with the exception of Yerkir Media TV, there is now no real media freedom on television here at all.

If in Azerbaijan and Georgia the battle is happening now, in Armenia the crunch moment occurred four years ago when the politically independent A1 + television channel was taken off the air. Other stations took this as a signal to resign themselves to official control and exercise political caution.

A1 + was stripped of its broadcasting license on April 2, 2002. A week later, as human rights activists and journalists were rallying to the support of the station, 17 media outlets released a statement, in which they insisted that freedom of speech was not in any danger in Armenia.

“This statement was a public declaration of submission, in which the media said it was better to obey rather than find themselves in the position of A1+,” said Mesrop Movsesian, chairman of the company.

“After 2002, all the TV companies began to be afraid and everybody understood that there was a certain line along which they had to walk, and any step to the right or to the left would not be tolerated. Speaking figuratively, they could be shot without warning,” said Mesrop Harutyunian, a media expert with the Yerevan Press Club.

Actually, I disagree with the general premise of the article that says there is no official control of what is broadcast. Actually, there is the belief that one of Kocharian’s closest aides — Armen Gevorgyan (AKA Armenchik) — takes a keen interest in keeping the situation under control. He also apparently has co-ownership of one of Armenia’s TV stations.

Meanwhile, the pro-Kocharian Armenia TV, which played its role perfectly in covering up falsifications during the 2003 Presidential Election, continues to gain strength. No wonder that Bagrat Sarkisyan, one of the station’s owners, can often be seen at Kocharian’s side while his “partner in crime,” Diasporan benefactor Gerard Cafesjian, remains silent — presumably out of fear that his investments in Armenia will suffer.

The TV media is in a sad state indeed.

Most television channels are now extremely selective in their news coverage, ignoring opposition figures such as former parliamentary speaker Artur Baghdasarian.

“For example, when visiting the French University, the foreign minister of France was accompanied by Arthur Baghdasarian, chairman of the university’s board of trustees,” said Harutyunian. “However, most TV reports were edited so as to avoid showing Artur Baghdasarian. This is straightforward censorship.”

A recent US State Department report summed this up, “The authorities continu[e] to maintain tight control over the state-owned Armenian Public Television and virtually all private channels, which are owned by businesspeople loyal to [Armenian president Robert] Kocharian and rarely air reports critical of his administration. Their reporters are believed to operate under editorial censorship.”

Television professionals say much of the pressure on them is informal and comes either directly from politicians or via the presidentially-appointed national television and radio commission.

[…]

Shamiram Aghabekian, deputy chairman of Armenia’s national television and radio commission, agreed to be interviewed by IWPR only on the condition that what she said was understood as her personal opinion. She conceded that television exercised self-censorship, but said this was normal.

“The owners of our TV companies are mostly very rich people - oligarchs,” she said. “They see that the authorities have created favourable conditions for them to do business, and, naturally, they don’t want a change of government. The current government suits the owners of television stations perfectly.”

Sad, sad, sad. Even sadder when you consider that Diasporans such as Salpi Ghazarian, now advisor to the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, have been instrumental in allowing this situation to form and take shape. Ghazarian, for example, was involved in advising Cafesjian on how and where to invest his money to “support” the independent media in Armenia.

Instead, she directed it towards her own Armenian International Magazine (AIM), as well as Armenia TV. Now, CS Media is one of the greatest threats to freedom of speech and access to information in Armenia. Again, there’s a Diasporan dimension to this all because not only is Armenia TV broadcast to communities abroad, but it also recently bought up one of the few papers critical of Kocharian abroad, the U.S. based Armenian Reporter.

So, expect more disinformation and propaganda from CS Media coming to a newstand near you sometime soon, but before you next tune into the crap that Armenia TV pumps out locally or via satellite, at least take time to read IWPR’s article here. By all means be happy that you’re being lied to when you watch Public TV H1 or Armenia TV, but at least be honest enough to admit that the wool is being pulled over your eyes.

Soon the lies will be perpetuated even more as word has it that the duo of Bagrat Sarkisyan and Gerard Cafesjian have bought up the rights to using the name Armenian International Magazine to spread yet more rose-tinted propaganda in the Diaspora. CS Media has apparently postponed the relaunch of the English-language magazine which was due to resurface a few months ago, and they were probably right to.

Nobody bought that magazine, and even fewer actually believed what was written on its pages, when it was last published, and I doubt few will next time round either. I’m only sorry that an old acquaintance of mine has been roped in to mastermind the eventual relaunch. Still, if you can’t beat them, join them. That seems to be determining most people’s response to things happening in Armenia today.