In its annual worldwide survey on the media, Freedom House has once again categorized Armenia as “not free,” a situation which has been the case since 2002 when the pro-opposition A1 Plus TV station was taken off the air. A huge question mark then hung over the future of the company as many of its staff left to work elsewhere.

The Council of Europe and international media watchdogs decried the move seen by many as a precursor to later attempts to silence the press in the run-up to the presidential election held less than a year later. However, demands to let A1 Plus return to the air fell on deaf ears.

In June last year, the European Court of Human Rights even ruled in the station’s favour in an action against the government, but the victory was only symbolic. The station still remains without a broadcasting frequency. Instead, and undaunted by attempts to silence its voice, A1 Plus went online.

Also using blogs and YouTube, especially during last year’s contraversial presidential election, its web site is probably the most visited online news source in Armenia, with around 10,000 visits per day. That might not seem much, but in a country where Internet penetration stood at 5.7 percent in 2007, it’s quite something.

Now, in an effort to expand its reach, the banned station this week turned its attention to an estimated 1.9 million mobile phone subscribers in the country, offering short video headlines for users to download. True, the news is hardly extensive, but it does represent another attempt to take on governmental control of the broadcast media.

[…]

The full post where comments can be left is available on the Frontline Club blog.

ArmeniaNow has published my article based around the recent BarCamp held in Tbilisi and attended by bloggers, journalists and new media specialists from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The article also examines the emergence of blogging as a tool for change.

The idea of over a hundred people from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern Europe gathering at an open air event held in the grounds of an ethnographical museum in the capital of the Republic of Georgia with no fixed agenda might at first sound like a recipe for disaster, but the concept of BarCamps is fast becoming popular the world over. An international network of participant-generated conferences – or “unconferences” usually focusing on the Internet and New Media – had come to the Caucasus.

The first ever BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, three years ago and over 30 have since been held worldwide. The Tbilisi event staged on 7-8 June was the first in the Caucasus and Azerbaijan will be staging its own at the end of August. Elsewhere in the former Soviet space, BarCamps have been held in the Baltic Republics, Ukraine and Belarus while Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia will hold their own later this year.

The BarCamp in Tbilisi was followed by a two-day workshop funded by the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the National Endowment for Democracy on new media and blogging. The training by the Prague-based Transitions Online for participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia is part of the online publication’s continued interest in promoting blogging in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

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Following last weekend’s BarCamp in Tbilisi, one of the event’s main organizers, Giga Paitchadze, briefly considers its success and provides a small glimpse into the Georgian blogosphere. Also known as DvOrsky [GE], the blogger claims to be the oldest in the country. Global Voices Online interviewed Paitchadze after the Caucasus BarCamp.

GV: How would you describe the blogging scene in Georgia?

GP: About 5 percent of all internet users in Georgia have blogs. With Internet penetration now at about 10 percent of the whole population, then that means about 10-15,000 bloggers. However, this figure would include both active and inactive bloggers, i.e. with one post only.

The main language is of course Georgian, and the second is Russian because many bloggers use LiveJournal and have a large audience there in terms of friends, people making comments, readers and visitors.

As there are no catalogues or any services where Georgian blogs are classified and where some statistics are available, I’ll say that the most widely covered topics are politics, music, sport and other outdoor or lifestyle activities, tech news, IT and everything else.

Also there are many bloggers who just write about everyday life.

The full post and interview accompanied by photographs is available on Global Voices Online. Comments can be left on the original post.

On the sidelines of this weekend’s Caucasus BarCamp in Tbilisi, capital of the Republic of Georgia, Global Voices Online’s Caucasus Editor Onnik Krikorian had a brief opportunity to talk to BarCamp Ambassador and Regional Program Manager for Transitions Online, Emin Huseynzade, on blogging in Azerbaijan and the potential for its future development.

Huseynzade was also in Tbilisi to coordinate special training by Transitions Online for journalists and bloggers from all three South Caucasus republics. The training deals with the latest trends in new media, including podcasting, video casting, RSS feeds, and social networks, as well as the impact of blogs on traditional media.

Over 150 people from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia registered for the conference although perhaps only half attended. Neverthless, the unconference dealt with topics such as the use of mobile telecommunication for social and environmental surveys, research and activities, as well as other topics as diverse as social networks such as Birge.az.

With the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh still frozen, both events also gave bloggers and journalists from both countries the rare possibility to meet with each other. Although interaction was minor for the BarCamp, participants from both countries attended presentations by the other and Huseynzade says that communication between the two would likely be greater for the smaller Transitions Online training.

However, with Azerbaijan due to stage its own BarCamp on 29-31 August in Lenkoran, Azerbaijan, it is unlikely that Armenians will be able to participate.

The full post and interview accompanied by photographs is available on Global Voices Online. Comments can be left on the original post.

Armenian-Turkish border, Khor Virap, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003

As one of the oldest nations in the world, Armenia occupies a fraction of its ancestral lands. Invaded and subjugated to foreign rule throughout the centuries, many of Armenia’s present day policies have been shaped by unresolved conflict and disputes with its neighbors. As a landlocked country with few natural resources, its full potential for economic development has been frustrated by effective isolation from the surrounding region. More than a million Armenians have emigrated to seek better lives abroad.

Millennium Development Goals

In August 2003, the Armenian government finalized its long-awaited Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which aims to reduce poverty to 19% by 2015. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), most of the PRSP’s objectives are in line with achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which include combating poverty, improving the environment and addressing other pressing social issues.

However, the 2005 MDG progress report produced jointly by the government and UN agencies still considers it unrealistic for Armenia to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015 compared to 1990 levels. Because of insufficient funding levels and inadequate access to healthcare for the poor, reducing infant and maternal mortality by 2015 might also prove unreachable.

Given the rate of deforestation in Armenia, environmental sustainability is unlikely to be achieved by 2015. New indicators concerning the country’s Lake Sevan have been added to dress concerns with lowering water levels. Access to drinking water is also a concern with 81 percent of rural areas having a centralized water supply according to 2003 data. The figure was 98 percent for urban areas.

However, having already achieved universal primary education, MDG goals in this area have been modified to include secondary education. Secondary professional, professional graduate and postgraduate education has also been mentioned of special significance as is improving its general quality.

The full post is available on The Caucasus Knot.

Ahead of next month’s Global Voices Online Summit in Budapest, Hungary, I’ve just compiled a backgrounder on the role blogs played during the recent presidential election and especially in its immediate aftermath. Armenia will be specifically included in a session, The Wired Electorate in Emerging Democracies.

Arguably the most active country in the South Caucasus when it comes to blogging, the content and relevance of blogs on Armenia was at first nothing really worth writing home about. Most posts by foreigners living in the capital almost entirely focused on how good their lives were while others were simply copy and paste exercises reproducing articles without comment. Perhaps the only time when bloggers started to write original posts was whenever the Armenian Genocide came into the focus of the international media.

Even so, the situation slowly started to change in the run-up to last year’s parliamentary election as the political climate intensified in preparation for the inevitable transfer of power which occurred during this year’s presidential election. Under the constitution, the president is prohibited from holding office for two consecutive terms and as the then incumbent head of state was coming to the end of his second, Armenia would elect a new leader.

Of course, this being the former Soviet Union where vote-rigging and vote-buying are as much part of the election process as physically casting a vote, it was make or break time for the radical extra-parliamentary opposition in the country. And with the broadcast media controlled by the government, it was only natural that the Internet would be seen as a natural medium to disseminate alternative information.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

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.

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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.

Although Internet penetration in Armenia is quite low compared to the West, more and more domain names are being registered and many opposition media outlets now depend on an online presence to get their message out. In recent years international donors have even funded government web sites in the hope of increasing transparency and promoting the rule of law.

Last year’s parliamentary election was also quite notable in that many political parties started to use the Internet to appeal to voters and, as The Armenian Observer notes, that tendency looks set to continue for next month’s presidential election in Armenia.

Vigorous politicisation of the Armenian section of Internet is observed as the February 19 Presidential elections draw near. A number of official websites endorsing different candidates have been launched. Already there are websites for Levon Ter-Petrossian, Vazgen Manukyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan and Artur Baghdasaryan. Sections related to the elections have appeared in the websites of Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia/ Bargavach Hayastan and United Liberal National Party/MIAK parties.

Passport and invitations department at RA police has presented the list of Armenian voters based on polling stations to the Central Electoral Commission, which has been placed in the Central Electoral Commission’s website, and as was the case with the previous elections, every Internet connected voter may check their names in the list and find out which polling station they will be voting, and where that particular station is located. By the way, 2 311 917 voters were registered this time, which is 5 983 less then the previous - May 12, 2007 Parliamentary elections.

A range of information websites dedicated to the upcoming elections have been launched, including the http://elections.a1plus.am/ of A1plus, http://www.echannel.am - by Internews Armenia and http://www.elections2008.am - by MediaMax News Agency.

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

Mention two presidential election campaign web sites and before you know it, you discover a third. Orinats Yerkir’s Artur Baghdasarian also has one. Like Ter Petrosian’s, the site is multi-lingual in Armenian, Russian and English although pretty much still under construction.

Following the establishment of an official Levon Ter Petrosian Campaign Site for next month’s presidential election in Armenia, another candidate — the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun’s Vahan Hovannisian — now has one too. It’s only available in Armenian and is not quite as slick as Ter Petrosian’s which is available in three languages.

In the interest of transparency given the tendency for many sites to inflate the number of readers, with some confusing hits and page views with the number of actual accesses, Google Analytics reports the following in terms of statistics for this blog in 2007:

Visitors:	94,404
Absolute Unique Visitors:	58,742
Page views	176,175

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