Deputy FM of Armenia commented on information on "black lists" of disliked media
ArmInfo.Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan denies having a so-called "blacklist of unsavory media" in the department he represents, not only using
special sanctions in the form of blocking access to information, but
also developing some conspiracies from the Foreign Ministry
spokesman.
On July 27, after the government session, Shavarsh Kocharyan assured
the journalists that there are no issues that would hang in the air
and would not be commented on by the Armenian Foreign Ministry. "It's
another matter that in many cases, the answers were distorted, as a
result of which the practice of writing a response to questions was
introduced," he said.
Note that recently a scandal broke out in social networks due to the
fact that in a closed Facebook group of press secretaries of Armenian
state agencies, the RA MFA Spokesman Tigran Balayan expressed
dissatisfaction with the work of the "Graparak" newspaper and one of
his correspondents, asking his colleagues how to proceed with A
wayward journalist. In response, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman for
the Defense Ministry, advised to include this media, as well as
another Zhokhovard newspaper, on the blacklist. And the press
secretary of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Nana Gndoyan even
suggested the method of "effective intimidation of the media".
According to her, in order to stay away from the obsessive journalist
for a long time, one should refer to the provision of the law on
freedom of information, which grants the relevant department the
right to provide information within 30 days. Head of the Public
Relations Department of the National Assembly of Armenia Arsen
Babayan and Advisor to the Governor of Gegharkunik Zohrab Yeganyan
also expressed their complaints about the work of the media and
journalists.