In the course of the briefing that took place today, the RA President’s Press Secretary Victor Soghomonyan has stated, that the restrictions imposed on the Armenian mass media introduced by Presidential decree as part of the limitations under a declared state of emergency, are temporary in nature, and in a couple of days such restrictions will be lifted.
President’s press secretary also spoke of the modification of media restrictions by Presidential decree on March 13th, after which a number of independent and pro-opposition newspapers attempted to publish, but were again faced with illegal preemptive censorship by state security officers, and in sign of protest refused to publish their issues prepared for March 14th. Victor Soghomonyan attempted to justify the anti-consitutional steps of the authorities, noting, that on the issues prepared for publication on March 13th, “Zhamanak-Yerevan” carried an article, claiming, that the authorities are concealing dozens of death casualties of March 1 events and that the authorities had planted provocateurs among the protesters; “Haik” newspaper had alleged, that the detainees are being beaten by police, and that there are political prisoners in the country. “Isn’t this provocation?” Presidential press secretary has asked. Moreover, according to Mr. Soghomonyan, the fact that the “Haykakan Zhamanak” had prepared for publication an interview with its editor-in-chief Nikol Pashinyan, who is officially wanted by the authorities, “is simply not-acceptable”.
After all the brilliant blunter stated above, Victor Soghomonyan has gone even further and remarked that “it is technically impossible” to block websites on the web, referring to “rumors among the public”, according to which after the introduction of the state of emergency certain Internet-publications have been blocked by the authorities.
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant
7 Comments
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Yeah, right! So A1plus.am and Azatutyun.am are now accessible, aren’t they? Moron! Where do they get these guys!!! 🙁
Payqar.net is still blocked in Armenia, isn’t it?
Das ist auch gut so!
Soghomonyan is lier, or non educated enough (technically).
Can’t get through to payqar.net, but one guesses it’s not a news site and is designed to bring about the revolution that the radical opposition have tried to encourage for the past few years and often by spreading rumor, gossip, lies and hatred.
On the other hand, can’t get into A1 Plus who promised to abide by the terms of the state of emergency as well as RFE/RL. What I don’t get is why I have been able to access YouTube for some days now using ArmenTel’s main connection, but the supposedly independent ADC still blocks it.
In the case of the latter does this suggest that it’s left up to the discretion of the ISPs? On the other hand, and just to confuse matters, when YouTube and RFE/RL were initially blocked by ArmenTel I could access them for a bit after with ADC.
Regardless, I’d like to know why E-channel is still blocked and why, for example, Armenia Now can circumvent restrictions by using a blog under the same domain name. Seems like the policy of restricting internet domains is haphazard at best and I’d like to know more about who is determining things and why.
For example, I can view the videos on YouTube via my connection at home now, but can’t read about them on A1 Plus (not that I trust the site as a reliable source of information, but anyway). I also can’t read RFE/RL’s article off their site, but can off Groong or blogs. It doesn’t actually quite make any sense.
Onnik: You’d like to know who is determining things and why, in Armenia? Simple answer: Corrupt thugs who need to hide their incompetence and evil, greedy deeds, that is who determines things in Armenia.
I meant specifically with regards to Internet. For example, ArmenTel have removed the block on YouTube. However, ADC — a part-foreign owned/managed company — hasn’t. Who is determining that? Add to that other contradictions. For example, some news sites have been blocked while agreeing to comply with restrictions (A1 Plus) while others haven’t (Hetq Online). And so on.