After a 20-day state of emergency was declared in Armenia when clashes between security services and supporters of the former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, broke out on the streets of the capital following the disputed 19 February presidential election, access to the media has been severely restricted. According to presidential decree, local media outlets can now only publish official news and political propaganda is banned.

[…]

Nevertheless, pro-Ter-Petrossian activists outside of the country have seized upon the opportunity to instead use blogs to disseminate information during what is to all intents and purposes a media blackout in the country. Interestingly, one such blogger, Artmika at Unzipped, likens it to the old Soviet practice of “samizdat.”

Samizdat (Russian: самиздат) was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries. Copies were made a few at a time, and those who received a copy would be expected to make more copies. This was often done by handwriting or typing.

This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.

Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows: “I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and [may] get imprisoned for it.”

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the murder of ethnic Armenian newspaper editor and journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey. Dink was shot outside the office of the Agos newspaper on 19 January 2007. A prolific advocate for civil, human and minority rights in Turkey, Dink was killed by 17-year-old Ogun Samast. His murder shocked the world and marked one of few times when Armenian, Turkish and other bloggers spoke about an event making headline news across the world with one voice.

A year on and the conversation in the blogosphere might be less, but many people the world over — and not least in Armenia and Turkey — remember Dink. A rare voice calling for reconciliation between Armenians and Turks, Dink’s message and legacy is still remembered today. A week ago, Blogian posted information on Hrant Dink memorial events to be held the world over.

Internations Musings makes a short but to the point post consisting of just two photographs taken in Istanbul with the title “I believe darkness will one day reunite with light.” Rastî simply posts various quotes and photographs, including one from the Armenian Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian.

The brutality, the impunity, the violence of Hrant’s murder serves several political ends. First, it makes Turkey less interesting for Europe, which is exactly what some in the Turkish establishment want. Second, it scares away Armenians and other minorities in Turkey, from pursuing their civil and human rights. Third, it scares those bold Turks who are beginning to explore these complicated, sensitive subjects in earnest.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Reuters reports that Turkey will finally consider amending Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which has long been considered an obstacle to democratization and freedom of speech in the country. In particular, the article which makes “insulting Turkishness” a crime, has been used to prosecute Turkish intellectuals, activists and writers such as Orhan Pamuk as well as Turkish citizens of ethnic Armenian or Kurdish extraction such as Hrant Dink.

Indeed, many pro-democracy and freedom of speech activists consider that Article 301 was indirectly responsible for Dink’s murder in Istanbul earlier this year. Anyway, Reuters says that the amending the article is not guaranteed, but with growing pressure from both inside and outside Turkey to do so, let’s hope it is.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is preparing to amend a controversial law on freedom of speech that has been criticized repeatedly by the European Union and could slow EU accession talks with Brussels.

The justice ministry will hand the draft amendment to article 301 of the penal code, which makes it an offence to “insult Turkishness,” to the cabinet within 15 days, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin told reporters on Tuesday.

It was not clear when the cabinet would approve the amendment.

Article 301 has been used to prosecute Turkish writers and thinkers, notably for comments on the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 under the Ottoman Empire.

Two years ago the government tried Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk under article 301 for his remarks on the events of 1915-16, but he was acquitted on a legal technicality.

The European Commission’s annual progress report on Turkey, published in November, called on Ankara to make “significant further efforts” on freedom of expression and religion, and noted that more people had been prosecuted under article 301 last year than in 2005.

[…]

Critics say Turkey’s centre-right government is dragging its feet, fearing that amending the law could spark a nationalist backlash at a time when EU membership is becoming less popular among Turks.

EU officials said the law was poisoning Turkey’s relations with Armenia and weighing on the media and non-government organizations in Turkey.

In countries such as Armenia where the mainstream broadcast media is firmly under the control of government-connected businessmen and/or officials, while the traditional print and online media largely reflects the opposition in the country, there is no doubt that blogs have an important role to play in the dissemination of information, news and views.

[…]

But rather than change as the result of alternative, opposition voices seeking to involve themselves in the internal political life of the country, the situation might now be changing because of four bloggers who protested on and offline against an event staged early this week at a Yerevan school to promote peace and reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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The four Live Journal bloggers — Uzogh, Pigh, Aerial_vortex and Akunamatata_ser — were however angered by the attempt to hold such an event at a school run by Armenia’s former Minister of Education, Ashot Bleyan, who is notorious for what many consider to be “anti-Armenian” positions on Nagorno Karabakh and Genocide recognition. Speaking to Global Voices for this post, Uzogh explains why the four bloggers staged the action.

On December 14, the day when the press release announcing the event at Bleyan’s school was sent to public, I wrote a post [RUS] expressing my anger towards the organizers and sponsors of this event. The post resulted in many comments and a rather long discussion with Mark Grigoryan (Armenian journalist now residing in UK).

Some of the participants of this discussion suggested doing something to make this event a failure, but I preferred to take some time out for reflection before resorting to action. A day later, I concluded that an aggressive action would not result in the failure of the event, but would rather turn the organizers into some kind of victims which would lead to increased publicity and additional fund raising opportunities.

That’s why I instead preferred to pursue a tactic of mockery and shared this idea with a few bloggers that had already expressed their intention to join any protest action. We had a brainstorming at my house on Sunday and figured out what could be done.

I didn’t want to make this a public protest action, and none of us are members of any political party or non-formal group etc, so we did not aim to attract a lot of supporters. This was the protest by a few men and citizens, and not a civic action. At its core was the concept that we didn’t like the strategy of unilateral reconciliation through the brain-washing of children.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

RFE/RL reports that a group of civil society organizations staged yesterday a protest in support of the embattled Gyumri-based regional TV station, GALA TV. The station has been under pressure from the authorities since allocating extensive airtime to the speeched and activities of former president Levon Ter Petrosian. Interestingly, as is the case with another Ter Petrosian supporter, the authorities are using the tax inspection services to exert pressure on political opponents.

Hundreds of people rallied in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri on Wednesday in support of a local television station that has been facing uncertain future ever since providing airtime to former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

The demonstration was organized by local and Yerevan-based civic groups amid ongoing judicial proceedings that could result in GALA TV being taken off the air. The station was raided by tax inspectors in late October. Its parent company, Chap, was subsequently charged with evading more than 25 million drams ($82,000) in taxes.

The State Tax Service (STS) also alleged that the small broadcaster has been illegally using the local television tower to air its programs to Gyumri and surrounding areas. Earlier this month, the Gyumri municipality asked Armenia’s Economic Court to force GALA to remove its transmitter from the facility. The court already ruled on November 26 to freeze Chap’s bank accounts and other assets worth the alleged tax shortfall.

GALA’s owner and staff reject the criminal case as baseless and link it to their decision to air, as a paid advertisement, Ter-Petrosian’s September 21 that contained harsh criticism of Armenia’s leadership. Organizers of the demonstration echoed the claim in their speeches.

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LVB.net has an interesting post on the impact of blogging on society and politics based on a moderated working group on the same subject which was part of the European Bloggers (Un)Conference. Interestingly, E-Channel’s Gegham Vardanyan and TOL Georgia’s Irakli Jibladze were present at the event and some points are worth republishing here.

1. In the UK, an Ipsos Mori poll found that only 16% of people trust journalists. It’s not as much because of what they write, but also because what they don’t write. While public broadcasters depend from politics for funding, commercial media depend from advertizing and profits. Because of their individual perspective, bloggers are seen as more independent and honest. Still, bloggers can learn some things from professional journalists in fields like writing style, clarity and efficiency.

2. Does this mean that bloggers have to be objective? Not at all. The new age is an age of opinion, not of facts. In order to be credible, honesty is more important than neutrality or objectivity.

3. Political campaigns are already changing into a more participatory way as a result of web 2.0 and blogs. However, this effect is still superficial and its impact on political programs is still low. Especially in the US we see that web 2.0 are effective for fundraising. But blogging and web 2.0 are not just about politics, it’s about society. They are transforming society by giving a voice to individuals and groups. Ideas are now also flowing from the bottom to the top instead of exclusively top down.

4. In countries without free media, bloggers usually get in trouble only when they start to have a real impact. But for these bloggers it is difficult to get a real impact, as their blogs are not picked up by the mainstream media. Sometimes the impact can be indirect, through world opinion and foreign media. Check out globalvoicesonline.org for news about censorship and freedom of expression.

5. How can bloggers measure their impact? Counters and statistics only tell one part of the story. It’s not the quantity that counts, but the quality of your readership. A few opinion makers as readers can have a greater impact than thousands of other readers. Surveys can be useful to discover who is reading your blog.

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RFE/RL carries a report by AFP that Hrant Dink, the ethnic Armenian editor of the Agos newspaper in Turkey who was murdered in Istanbul, Turkey, earlier this year has been named as one of its World Press Freedom Heroes by the International Press Institute.

“Hrant Dink’s nomination as our 52nd World Press Freedom Hero is a tribute to his bravery, but also an acknowledgement of his significant contribution to freedom of expression and press freedom in Turkey,” IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said.

Dink, a well-known Turkish-Armenian editor and columnist, was murdered in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. He had received numerous death threats from Turkish nationalists who viewed his journalism as treacherous.

Dink was shot twice in the head and once in the neck by a Turkish nationalist outside the offices of the newspaper he founded in 1996. He had faced legal problems for denigrating “Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code in his articles about the massacre of Armenians during the First World War. In July 2006, he lost an appeal over a suspended six-month prison sentence handed down for violating Article 301. His prosecution stemmed from an article in 2004 about the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. Aside from this criminal case, Dink was also facing prosecution for a second article condemning his conviction.

Born on 15 September 1954, Dink was best-known for reporting on human and minority rights in Turkey and for advocating Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. In a February 2006 interview, he said he hoped his reporting would pave the way for peace between the two peoples. “I want to write and ask how we can change this historical conflict into peace,” he said.

[…]

The IPI award was formally handed over to his widow, Rakel Dink, on 10 December in Vienna. “The murder of Hrant Dink deprived Turkey of one of its most courageous and independent voices and it was a terrible event for Turkish press freedom in general,” Fritz said. “Hrant Dink is one of at least 91 journalists murdered so far in 2007. In most cases, these murders occurred with impunity. We call on governments around the world to ensure that those responsible for these heinous crimes are brought to justice.”

Levon Ter Petrosian Rally, Liberty Square, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Last week I received an email from Aramazd Ghalamkaryan, a frequent commenter on this blog and also seemingly one of the main people behind the publicity for former president Levon Ter Petrosian’s unofficial campaign ahead of February’s presidential election. Basically, they wanted to purchase the high resolution version of a photograph I took of Levon Ter Petrosian at his first public rally for use in their materials. In a normal country such a request would be easy to grant, but this is Armenia. This is not a normal country.

My main concern was that by effectively selling an image to Levon Ter Petrosian’s team it might create a conflict of interests in my work covering later rallies and so I consulted various photographers I know outside of Armenia for their opinion. In all cases — New York Times photographer Justyna Mielnikiewicz, World Press Photo Award winner Edmond Terakopian, and EurasiaNet photo editor Dean Cox — the answer was no, it does not represent a conflict of interests given that I was not commissioned to take the photo and the fact that I cover every other campaign rally as well.

[…]

Now, fast forward to yesterday. According to RFE/RL, and since confirmed by a quick SMS to Aramazd Ghalamkaryan, leaflets printed to publicize Saturday’s rally by Levon Ter Petrosian have been confiscated by the authorities. True enough, while walking through Komitas earlier this evening I wondered why there were no flyers for the event in sight anywhere. For the previous two meetings they were everywhere.

Today, just two days before a rally that I can suppose would have attracted more people than normal because it was a Saturday, there was nothing. And now I know why.

Tax inspectors have confiscated thousands of newly printed leaflets announcing former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s upcoming rally in Yerevan, it emerged on Thursday.

According to Aleksandr Arzumanian, a close Ter-Petrosian associate, an activist of the opposition Aylentrank movement was detained by officials from the State Tax Service (STS) while receiving 4,000 leaflets from a printing house in the capital on Wednesday. He said the activist, Artak Arakelian, was taken into custody on the grounds that he had no documents certifying the origin of the fliers.

“After keeping him in custody for six hours they fined him 15,000 drams ($50),” Arzumanian told RFE/RL. The STS officials also inspected the Van Arian printing company’s books and briefly detained one of its employees, he said.

A spokeswoman for the STS, Alina Khudoyan, essentially confirmed the information, saying that the leaflets were “temporarily” confiscated because Van Arian did not input the Aylentrank order into its accounts in order to evade taxes. Khudoyan said the tax collection agency fined the company, rather that Arakelian. Speaking to RFE/RL, she could not say when the leaflets will be returned to Aylentrank.

Arzumanian dismissed the official explanation and described the STS actions as the latest example of government harassment of Ter-Petrosian supporters in advance of next February’s presidential elections. “They are doing everything to prevent us from informing the public that we will hold a rally in Liberty Square on Saturday,” he said.

[…]

“We are not doing anything illegal,” said Arzumanian. “We will try to find other printing houses,” he added. “But as you know, everyone is scared now.”

[…]

Meanwhile, the photo Aramazd Ghalamkaryan says was used for the leaflet is posted above, and just to remind, all photos taken during this pre-election period are available on my Flickr site and may be freely used for non-commercial purposes as long as credit is given. In fact, I actually urge webmasters to use these images if they are not modified in any way if only to show to the government that under no circumstances will their attempts at censorship and intimidation be allowed to succeed.

And as I have to wonder if at some point pressure will be applied on journalists and photographers covering Ter Petrosian’s rallies, I will now be writing an email expressing my concern to the British Embassy. I am also going to express my concern and outrage to high-level acquaintances I have at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan. This move towards an environment of fear and oppression in Armenia must not be allowed to continue. In fact, it must stop now.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.

With the February presidential election in Armenia drawing nearer with each passing day and week, and with the Internet increasingly playing an important role in disseminating information on elections the world over, it’s probably a good time to once again make available the Armenian-translation of Solana Larsen, Zephyr Teachout and Mary Joyce’s Election Blogging Guide.

Since its birth in the mid-nineties and its popularization at the turn of the millennium, blogging has been an intriguing platform for personal expression made public. While blogs (first called weblogs) began as online diaries, their uses, and the topics they cover, have been increasing ever since. Blogs have been forums for political speech almost since their inception, yet the full political potential of blogging has yet to be achieved. Election blogging is the next step in the realization of blogs as a tool for political activism. The 2004 American presidential election was the first election closely covered by bloggers. Now, bloggers around the world practice “election blogging” by writing about and commenting on election news.

What is the possible impact of election blogging? Election blogs are important media tools in all countries. However, it is in countries where political speech and press freedoms are limited that blogs have the most important role to play. Blogs, because they exist virtually, can afford to push the boundaries of speech further than broadcast and print journalists, which are more easily regulated by the government. Thus, blogs can act as alternative sources of information in an environment where officially-sanctioned media coverage is biased or incomplete. They can also act as free speech zones. Through comment threads, readers can anonymously discuss political topics they might not be willing to discuss in a non-digital setting. In this way, election blogs can become potent forces for journalistic independence, freedom of speech, government accountability, and active citizenship.

The Armenian translation can be downloaded in Word format (compressed as a .zip file). More blogging resources in English and other languages such as Russian can be downloaded from the NewEurasia site.

Via the Committee to Protect Bloggers, IFEX carries a report from the Committee to Protect Journalists on the arrest of Tunisian blogger and freelance journalist Slim Boukhdhir. He is charged with “aggression against a public employee” and the “violation of public morality standards.”

Under the penal code, the charges could bring 18 months in prison. Boukhdhir was also charged under a 1993 national identity card law with “refusal to show his identification card to a public security agent.” He could be fined under that law.

A court in the suburban city of Sakiet Ezzeit denied his release today. The hearing is scheduled to resume on December 4. Authorities did not disclose the basis for the charges.

“The Tunisian government is again using the judicial system to silence independent-minded journalists and bloggers,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “Slim Boukhdhir has been a frequent target of assault and harassment by plainclothes police and it appears the courts are now taking their turn.”

The news is a week old, but I only came across it a few minutes ago and consider that bloggers writing on political themes anywhere in the world should give such cases exposure on their blogs. Anyway, more information can be found here.

Via TOL Georgia and Unzipped, the former President of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, Anna Dolidze, has set up a blog dedicated to “non-violent resistance to Saakashvili’s dictatorial regime in Georgia.”

I am a human rights lawyer from Tbilisi, Georgia. I currently live in New York and work as Albert Podell Global Fellow at Risk at the New York University School of Law. Previously, I was a President of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association.

http://resistancegeorgia.blogspot.com/