Increased Censorship: Radio Liberty Blocked Completely

Starting from today, people in Armenia won’t have access to Radio Liberty even via internet. Having previously blocked some of its domain names, now the Armenia State Security Services have blocked (illegally), also all the .eu, .org and other domain names of Radio Liberty, along with IP addresses of RFE/RLs servers outside of Armenia, so even direct links to its FTP servers with recorded audio files won’t be possible to download. Apparently, the Armenian Security Services have gone completely mad, if they’re trying to control the uncontrollable! Anyway – here’s a link to a web resource, which republishes Radio Liberty materials – http://azathayastan.googlepages.com/.

 

Also in an attempt, to provide some freedom of speech and opportunity to overcome the state of emergency situation, ArmeniaNow.com have launched a blog, where posts from Armenian bloggers are welcomed – it is available at this address: http://www.armenianow.com/blogs/

 

I can’t be too sure, but it seems like Hetq of Investigative Journalists of Armenia and E-channel.am of Internews Armenia seem to ramain, however, coverage on these resources is limited to official information, which is one-sided, to say the least. 

 

Artur Papyan

Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant

22 Comments

  1. Thanks for letting us know about about the increased censorship. Have they started jamming the shortwave transmissions of Azatutyun and Voice of America?

  2. And some people still support this government!

  3. They have scrambled the radio transmissions on 2nd of March . maybe they brought it back for a short period and then scrambled again I don’t know.
    If before they were blocking the websites on ISP and domain name levels, now it seems they block on IP Address and country level probably by implementing rules directly at Armentel side.
    At least this is the case for the payqar.net website.
    The way out of this blockade is the use of free Proxy servers. If you do a Google search for free Proxy server you will get a long list. i urge all the users in Armenia to access all teh blocked websites through Proxy servers. they might have blocked some but there are many of them.
    the idea behind the proxy server is that you access a blocked website through another website. Some of them even ensure your anonymity.

  4. Government didnt want radio liberty from long time ago. Its true its biased in its reporting like every other radios from rfl but still its not acceptable.

  5. provocateurs were emerging from behind police lines
    Many of the residents of Grigor Lusavoritch street, who witnessed the events that took place there during the night of March 1, have reported how groups emerged from police lines, threw rocks and molotov cocktails at the stores, then calmly returned back through the police.
    The residents bear witness that the same group that had attacked the Mayor’s office of Yerevan emerged from police lines, while the police “kindly” opened up a path for them, and returned back behind police lines later. The same happened with regard to attacks on other targets. The most comical thing is that there are passages (?) in the police records wherein it is clear how those men who “looted” Lphik Samo’s store calmly walked past the police with their booty in hand, without any of the police trying to interfere or stop them. Too boot, before the “Yerevan City” oligarchs’ operation, not only had the main portion of the store’s inventory been removed and transported to a different location, but there are testimonies that the remaining inventory, removed from the store after the operation, was taken with their cars to a different location, likely to their storehouses, while a small portion was taken by “Lfik”‘s bashibozuks (ruffians, louts) and dumped into police cars, so that they could use it later to make trouble for the participants in the protests.
    Employees of the “Yerevan City” chain of stores belonging to National Assembly deputy Samvel Aleksanian, “Lfik Samo,” bear witness that the main portion of the inventory of Mashtots Avenue’s “Yerevan City” had been emptied prior to the attack on that store on the night of March 1st.
    In other words, the “looting” of “Lfik”‘s store had been planned beforehand, and the owner with his bashibozuks had transported the goods found there somewhere else and allowed only a small portion of the inventory to be “destroyed.” In eyewitness accounts of the “looting,” witnesses have identified the looters of “Yerevan City”: the very same employees of the store who with metal pipes in their hands smashed up their employer’s store left and right. That is to say, in the case at hand, there is no doubt in people’s minds that the destruction of “Yerevan City” was organized by the oligarchs, themselves, while the operation was realized by their bashibozuks.
    -tr. Comrade Armen Filadelfiatsi

  6. Hetq is accessible from both my dialup and DSL access points, but I can’t open E-Channel. Interestingly, I can open Armenia Liberty from DSL but I’ve yet to try from my dialup at home. Yesterday I couldn’t, however.

  7. azatutyun had become LTP’s campaign radio. Why should a terrorist’s broadcaster have unlimited access to dpread the hatred of Satan (Levon) again.
    When LTP lands in jail that date should be declared a national holiday. I pray and wait.

  8. No, can’t access Armenia Liberty or E-Channel on an ArmenTel dialup connection. Hetq works, though.

  9. SamIzdat – So, after the Opera discoclub was shutdown, the authorities knew that people would spontaneously get together in front of Lfik’s store, so they self-robbed, then dispersed the crowd, then blamed the crowd and framed them for a completely staged riot?
    I think you give the authorities too much credit. This was a revolution attempt under the guise (and cover) of lots of innocent, frustrated people locking horns with the rough and tough authorities.
    Can’t have it both ways, 1) calling for democratic elections and then 2) demanding a revolution. Either you fight in the courts or you fight on the streets. But if you fight on the streets, expect at least as rough a response as the people got.
    Not surprisingly, Levon was smoking and hanging out in a warm house while the misled were left to fight, but that is a different matter. Such poor leadership, and such naive people.

  10. Try Proxy servers.
    google brings over 950.000 entries if even only 20% of them are useful that will be over 180.000 proxy servers.
    Impossible to block all of them.

  11. You know, I suddenly realised one thing. There is a direct analogy of the recent events and the genocide. The perpetraitors (the goverment) would invent ridiculous lies to cover them up, moreover, they blame the victims themselves. Victims, on the other hand don’t understand why given the compelling evidence would anyone have any doubts as to what really happened. Supporters of the perpetraitors are either brainwashed or live in a rosy dream that their government is not capable of commiting such a crime. The more evidence you present the more stubborn they are. The “neutrals”, on the other hand are those who call the events massacre, but stop short calling it a genocide.

  12. The preliminary Samizdat vol.1.4 is available here:
    http://hnazarian.blogspot.com/2008/03/samizdat-volume-14.html

  13. hmz – I don’t think it is very effective to portray the events (and the lead-up) in terms of emotional ,red herring arguments. It is exactly this kind of polarizing frenzied hysteria which helps nothing now. There is plenty of blame to go around, from the organizers, to the authorities, to individuals who actually committed crimes (on all sides).
    There is no “direct analogy” to the genocide, and I think this does a great disservice to us as a nation, and is insulting to those who perished and to all of us, their progeny, who live on as vigilant inheritors of that past.

  14. I guess those are not blocked could be blocked after reading your post by KGB people.

  15. Consider it to be an experiment 😉 If those are blocked, means I have readers in KGB (I’m sure I do, but just in case:))

  16. You definitely have readers there … you are so popular :))

  17. read the latest @ndhatakya news at:
    http://samizdatam.blogspot.com/
    or if you are not in Armenia http://www.payqar.net

  18. Serzh and the mafia regime are using the fog of war, censorship, to hide their incompetence. They cannot hide the blood on their hands. Now that the election is over, the cost of consumer goods has skyrocketed in Armenia. The thugs no longer have to contain their greed. They can resume plundering from the people and enriching themselves. The mood in Armenia is one of depression. Every able-bodied person wonders how they can get out of this failed country. If there was open immigration, Armenia would be emptied in months because there is no future here under Serzh and kleptocracy rule.

  19. Screw you all, the authorities are not doing merely enough to put an end to foreign meddling in internal affairs. Radio Liberty is a CIA run operation. And political tabloid sch as A1 plus, Hetq and ArmeniaNow serves foreign interest in Armenia. To hell with every single one of you ignorant morons…

  20. Radio Liberty is run by the CIA? Got any evidence for that?

  21. hint:
    open blocked websites using online translator tools such as bablefish:
    http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=en_en&url=payqar.net
    the same can be done through google. free proxies are also very effective.
    there are many ways if you search in internet for solutions.
    we should break the info blockade.

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