Following photo-posting from Bekaisa, Anoush Armenia posts about the protest dance held yesterday, “April 12, 2007, around 7:30pm, by a group of about 20 Armenians, who gathered at the intersection of Baghramyan and Demirchyan Avenues, once again facing Parliament, and for just a few minutes ran into the middle the intersection to form a circle and dance.”
The point of the dance was to remind the authorities of the events of “April 12, 2004, when thousands of Armenian citizens filled Baghramyan avenue facing the Parliamentary building, in protest against the fraudulent elections and calling for the President’s resignation. […] Shortly thereafter, the protest was dispersed by irreprehensible, unnecessary and brutal violence by military police.” (Anoush Armenia)
“Chvakheq” (Arm. – don’t be afraid), Bekaisa says in her post, “they will not stand for this country’s government to pressure their fellow Armenians – not in 1996, not in 2004, not in 2007 and not in 2008”, adds Anoush Armenia.
However, despite the hype in the blogosphere, the traditional media is mostly indifferent, A1plus being the only news resource to report the action so far.
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant
5 Comments
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One question before talking about the media. Firstly, who was informed? Did they contact others apart from A1 Plus, or was someone involved with the action anyway? Certainly, I didn’t see any notice on Bekaisa’s site although I have to be honest and say that I forgot about the action which I first heard about when it was being discussed and arranged in CRD/TI Armenia’s office about 2 weeks ago.
Anyway, I should have remembered yesterday, especially when I was covering a rally by the Republic Party. It was interesting to note that they were holding their meeting in Yerord Mas rather than join in with this action given that it was many of their people who were attacked on the street in April 2004. Haykakan Zhamanak was also at the Republic meeting in the form of Hayk Gevorgyan, the journalist/photographer who was reportedly personally beaten by Varyan.
So, it would be interesting to first know how many people — including the media and the political parties — were informed about it. As I said, although I now remember the discussions between Sksel a and CRD/TI Armenia about this action from 2 weeks ago, it slipped my mind and nobody announced anything. Had I known I would have gladly changed my plans, choosing to cover that event and leaving Republic party to another day.
My understanding was that this wasn’t a Sksela event, although a bunch of people from Sksela were present, along with NGO representatives, etc. I saw a journalist from Haykakan Zhamanak there, someone from Internews, a and I’m sure there were a couple of others (A1plus for sure).
By the way – the photo on A1plus site came from my mobile phone 😉 the batteries of my camera died on the last minute, and it turned out nobody else has camera’s ready. So I sent a couple of photos to A1plus – feeling the very proud Citizen Journalist snapping around using the low quality mobile phone camera.
Actually – I was really sorry you were not there with your camera Onnik! 🙁
So again, the point still stands. How can the media report on such events if they are not informed? Anyway, it’s obvious that lines are being drawn. Only partisan media outlets are being primarily invited to cover events by both sides of the political line.
As for Sksel a, like I said, I was there when the matter was discussed although yes, it wasn’t a Sksel a event although perhaps there was an initial plan to make it one, I don’t know. I also heard about plans to carry plastic bottles for yesterday’s event although that seems to have been done by Aylentrank/Impeachment today.
yes, it wasn’t sksel a event