The Media Ethics Monitoring Body has singled out the government-controlled broadcaster’s reports accusing their organizers of paying people — and refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh in particular — to take to the streets.
The independent body formed by 83 Armenian media outlets, including Public Television, drew the conclusion in response to a complaint filed by Artak Beglarian, a former Karabakh premier and human rights ombudsman exiled in Armenia.
Beglarian said that reports aired by the country’s leading TV channel in May and June violated ethical norms by emphasizing the Karabakh origin of protesters allegedly paid to demand Pashinian’s’ resignation.
“Yes, those arguments are correct,” Ashot Melikian, a member of the watchdog, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday.
Melikian said the Public Television reports “seemed to cast shadow on all Karabakh people” and thus amounted to hate speech against them.
In his words, the Public Television management has told the Media Ethics Monitoring Body that it simply broadcast statements made by Armenia’s Investigative Committee. Melikian dismissed the “weird” explanation, saying that a responsible media outlet cannot take allegations made by law-enforcement or government bodies at face value without any fact checking.
Armenia – Police detain a protester during a rally against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Yerevan, May 27, 2024.
One of those reports featured the audio of a wiretapped phone conversation between two men speaking in the distinct Karabakh dialect of the Armenian language. It incorrectly translated some parts of the conversation to claim that they were paid to attend the anti-Pashinian protests led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian. The broadcaster, which is run by Pashinian’s loyalists, apologized for the “typo” in June.
Among other members of the media watchdog is Ara Shirinian, the head of the Council of Public Broadcaster that appoints the state television and radio directors. Shirinian recused himself from the consideration of Beglarian’s complaint to avoid a conflict of interest.
Shirinian did not comment on the findings of the monitoring body. He said only that they have been posted on his council’s website.
Pashinian’s political team seems to have been very concerned about the participation of disgruntled Karabakh Armenians in the massive protests. Some of its surrogates openly warned the refugees to stay away from Galstanian’s opposition-backed movement. Also, the exiled mayors of Stepanakert and two other Karabakh towns were arrested on corruption charges in late May after signaling support for the outspoken archbishop.
