It has started
Armenia 1 (H1), the national television station, has been put to use by Serzh and his brother. The target, the meat selling area across from Tashir commonly called “Gyum Market”. As we know, there is no free press in Armenia. The closest thing that comes to it is Hetq.am and they are constantly under threat by those with power and money.
The goal of the brothers Sarkisyan is to drive down sales volumes by reporting about the sanitary conditions of the meat selling area. The fact is the area has not changed much in many years. There is no more a risk than there was ten years ago. By focusing the weapon of Armenia 1 against the meat sellers and driving off potential customers, the property becomes cheaper. There has been great resistance by the residents of the area to the forced sale of their land. The Sarkisyans want the land to do what has been done for North Avenue. You steal the land from the local and sell it to the rich foreigners for a tremendous profit.
This is a dirty trick and shows you how the powers-that-be can use the news as a weapon. Of course, this is not new in any society but it is commonly believed that as Sarkisyan and friends gain more power this will become even more common. Kochariyan’s time in office will be known as age of “secret fire sales of land”. People think that Serzh’s time will be the use of the state powers to enrich a select few to a far greater extent then is currently happening.
Stand your ground people! If you wish to help, go ask the meat sellers how you can help protect the last bastion of community in the center of Yerevan.
If you care about Armenia, now is the time to think about supporting freedom, encouraging property rights and removing political control of the nation’s airwaves. For many, optimism about a free Armenia where everyone has equal opportunity to compete and win is quickly waning.
Sorry to say, but Hetq is not independent — it too has it’s financial backers. When you say independent in Armenia what you really mean is anti-government.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 8/16/2007 @ 11:57 pm
Correct. I mean anti-establishment and yes, Hetq.am is funded by outside governments or at least it was.
How to find independence? Is it even possible for press to be willing to speak the truth without the threat of death?
However, in regards to even reporting, it seems that hetq.am is better than most. Would you disagree?
Comment by Burnell — 8/17/2007 @ 4:00 pm
Media everywhere in the world is almost always funded either by advertisers, government, political parties, private individuals, etc. To that extent there is no such thing as independent media.
Comment by R — 8/17/2007 @ 8:15 pm
True re. independent media but there’s a huge difference here. Everything is controlled by donors be they pro-government, pro-opposition or international organizations with policies to implement in Armenia. Even to have a media economically viable through advertising — even with the issues that results in — would be a huge step forwards in Armenia.
Basically, there are levels of independence, but the situation in Armenia is one where you can’t trust the content because you don’t know who DIRECTLY rather than INIDRECTLY paid for it. Hetq Online, in particular, does not reveal its source of income and funding and this is a huge problem and one that raises serious questions about how content and editorial policy is decided. Armenia Now, however, does.
Anyway, as someone who used to work for Hetq I think you’re being melodramatic about the threat of death. Really. Maybe some nutter in the diaspora will send them a hate email, but really, apart from the husband of Hetq’s translator (ie Alexander Arzoumanian) being arrested for his own political activities, you can’t compare Hetq to any dissident publication in other Republics.
The threat against Hetq from “Dodi Gago” that the publication went to the NSS about actually turned out to be some guy in the Diaspora, for example. However, it didn’t stop the publication from making a big noise about it.
Well, that’s my opinion, anyway. As for better reporting or not better reporting, I’m afraid I no longer rely on Hetq as a source of information since I know external funding has influenced its reporting on certain issues, especially on shall we say those of interest to nationalists in the Diaspora. More than that, however, I cannot say although I will add that many of their reporters are wet behind the ears and do not research their stories properly.
In this sense, you can’t compare the quality of reporting from Armenia Now with Hetq Online. The former is really more in meeting what I consider to be proper standards for journalism.
Anyway, back to this post. The quality of meat being sold in Armenia is atrocious and hygiene standards are even worse. Therefore I see nothing wrong in this new development and I welcome it. RFE/RL has coverage of it here. Sounds like a long overdue development to me.
Comment by Onnik Krikorian — 8/18/2007 @ 10:40 am
To the original blogger: are you saying that the unsanitary conditions must continue to be tolerated just because they are not any worse than 10 years ago? I doubt anyone would disagree that the conditions in the meat market are trully awful and it’s high time something is done about it.
Comment by Vahagn — 9/28/2007 @ 8:11 pm