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THE ARTSAKH MEDIA SUFFER REGRESS
By Anahit Danielyan
Theanalyticon.com
Thursday, 05 April 2012 13:34
In fact, that the year of 2011 had brought nothing new or nothing
positive to the Artsakh media, has been stressed more than once by
representatives of same media. They also point out that although some
progress has been seen in various spheres, mass media have suffered
an obvious regress.
Certainly, it should not be considered as the lesson of just 2011,
as far as it is not the first year when the situation with Artsakh
media has been poor so far. That is why it would not be fully
correct to blame only journalists, many others have made their
"contribution" into the regress. Political forces are not active in
the work with journalists; only a few of MPs show readiness to answer
their questions. The rest of them just try avoiding to communicate
with journalists: one dislikes that he is pictured during their work,
the other might say that he is not a political figure and is unable
to make comments (meanwhile he is a party leader and member of a
parliamentary faction), and the third one is ready to complain but,
Heaven forbid!, not publicly... This list can be continued, but let
us pass to the other "wing".
No question that the authorities also can be blamed for the inability
of media to move forward: there are quite a lot of persons in various
governmental bodies, not only unwilling to provide information to
journalists, but also trying to impede their work one way or another.
Last year I wrote about an incident, when the Chairman of the Central
Electoral Commission, former Deputy Chief of the Police, tried to
obstruct the work of the journalist. It seemed that the CEC should be
one of the open bodies in the country, and it had been such before the
appointment of the mentioned chairman. However, the practice shows
that a supervisor is able to change a lot. We have an additional
question whether the new chairman changed the style of the CEC work
"on his own," or it was wished so "from above." However, he has not
been dismissed from his position for using "police ways" in his work.
"Well, what can we do? The man's nature cannot be changed..."- this
is how they justify the style of that and other officials' work.
One of the important lessons of 2011 was the criticism of the Chief
Information Department (CID) under the NKR President, which spread
the news about NKR President Bako Sahakyan's participation in the
opening ceremony of "Hayastan" supermarket in Moscow. "Certainly,
nobody is against Bako Sahakyan's presence at shop opening ceremonies,
but why did they spread an official information about it, as far as the
participation of the President of the country (even a non-recognized
one) in such a ceremony cannot be a serious indicator for that country
record? Karabakh is a small, non-recognized country, but it is a state
that claims to become a serious state. This means that reports about
the President of that country should cover serious events, and not
openings of shops," - Lragir.am wrote.
It is the evidence that the work of the Information Department leaves
much to be desired. To say nothing of the practice that a manager is
stricken from the "rear" by his own people, whose responsibility is
just to be that rear: the above mentioned case is a obvious evidence of
that. And this is true for not only the CID, but the other structures
as well. It is difficult to find press-secretaries, even trying to work
in a proper manner; so the institute of press-services, in general,
can be evaluated as extremely poor. Press-secretaries often display
passivity by the request of their supervisors, working only with
some mass media, forgetting or ignoring the others or remembering
them only when necessary. Sometimes they are such on their own.
Last year there was another unique case, related to the work of
press-services, and it was widely discussed, i.e. an incident with
the head of the Press-service of the NKR Foreign Ministry, who in an
interview with a Yerevan-based newspaper could not contain himself
and used unacceptable language. The news about it was spread quickly
in papers and caused a wave of criticism.
Our next "stop" is the mass media themselves, most precisely, their
managers, trying their best in the efforts to hamper the work of their
own reporters: as a result, it is almost impossible to find materials
to describe the real life in Artsakh or cover the problems concerning
the people, living there, on the air or on the pages of newspapers. We
can recall that once last year an Artsakh public radio reporter found
herself under a tough pressing and was even punished by the Chairman
of the Public TV Council just for a harmless question, whether the
First Lady would vote or not. By the way, it is not the first such
experience that the mentioned reporter has got: according to her,
the Council once discussed the question of her dismissal for a report
about the Police, which was not written in a "positive" manner.
Unfortunately, it is just the managers of mass media who quite often
discredit the information field: be it out of fear, the intention to
please the authorities and not to lose their profitable jobs. All
this leads to the degradation of mass media; many of them already
resemble the Soviet media, most of journalists display conformism and
some, getting tired of struggle, are not active as they have been
before. So against such a backdrop, those journalists who publish
materials about the life and problems of people, criticizing the
authorities and presenting people's dissatisfaction, are treated
as opposition. And this is the best option, because they are mostly
called spies or traitors.
The above is what has been spoken about publicly, but journalists
can recall many incidents of that kind. Nearly two dozen journalists
mentioned many of such cases during their meeting with the NKR
President. They informed him about the problems and obstacles in
their work. The President promised that problems would be gradually
settled, but nothing has been changed so far. Even those problems
that required neither special efforts, nor time, just goodwill, have
not been resolved. So the lack of any improvement and the worsening
trend mean that there is no desire to do so, and that the issues raised
during the meeting have not been properly addressed. As a result, more
or less professional journalists from the mass media, financed from the
state budget, simply do nothing, at the same time continuing to work.
However, some new people come up to take their place, but the best
example of their work is the present day Artsakh TV.
AnÑ~Cway, the year was not only marked with lessons. There were
positive moments as well: for example, journalists were not beaten last
year, they were not thrown to jail, i.e. there was no direct physical
pressure. In addition, we have a new newspaper. And another good event:
Hrant Aleksanyan's book "Information from the non-recognized country"
was published.
These are the lessons that, as it seems to me, might have some
importance to avoid mistakes in the future, to change the situation
in the information field and ensure the progress surely required for
the development of democracy in the country, the need of which is so
much spoken about.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Anahit Danielyan
Theanalyticon.com
Thursday, 05 April 2012 13:34
In fact, that the year of 2011 had brought nothing new or nothing
positive to the Artsakh media, has been stressed more than once by
representatives of same media. They also point out that although some
progress has been seen in various spheres, mass media have suffered
an obvious regress.
Certainly, it should not be considered as the lesson of just 2011,
as far as it is not the first year when the situation with Artsakh
media has been poor so far. That is why it would not be fully
correct to blame only journalists, many others have made their
"contribution" into the regress. Political forces are not active in
the work with journalists; only a few of MPs show readiness to answer
their questions. The rest of them just try avoiding to communicate
with journalists: one dislikes that he is pictured during their work,
the other might say that he is not a political figure and is unable
to make comments (meanwhile he is a party leader and member of a
parliamentary faction), and the third one is ready to complain but,
Heaven forbid!, not publicly... This list can be continued, but let
us pass to the other "wing".
No question that the authorities also can be blamed for the inability
of media to move forward: there are quite a lot of persons in various
governmental bodies, not only unwilling to provide information to
journalists, but also trying to impede their work one way or another.
Last year I wrote about an incident, when the Chairman of the Central
Electoral Commission, former Deputy Chief of the Police, tried to
obstruct the work of the journalist. It seemed that the CEC should be
one of the open bodies in the country, and it had been such before the
appointment of the mentioned chairman. However, the practice shows
that a supervisor is able to change a lot. We have an additional
question whether the new chairman changed the style of the CEC work
"on his own," or it was wished so "from above." However, he has not
been dismissed from his position for using "police ways" in his work.
"Well, what can we do? The man's nature cannot be changed..."- this
is how they justify the style of that and other officials' work.
One of the important lessons of 2011 was the criticism of the Chief
Information Department (CID) under the NKR President, which spread
the news about NKR President Bako Sahakyan's participation in the
opening ceremony of "Hayastan" supermarket in Moscow. "Certainly,
nobody is against Bako Sahakyan's presence at shop opening ceremonies,
but why did they spread an official information about it, as far as the
participation of the President of the country (even a non-recognized
one) in such a ceremony cannot be a serious indicator for that country
record? Karabakh is a small, non-recognized country, but it is a state
that claims to become a serious state. This means that reports about
the President of that country should cover serious events, and not
openings of shops," - Lragir.am wrote.
It is the evidence that the work of the Information Department leaves
much to be desired. To say nothing of the practice that a manager is
stricken from the "rear" by his own people, whose responsibility is
just to be that rear: the above mentioned case is a obvious evidence of
that. And this is true for not only the CID, but the other structures
as well. It is difficult to find press-secretaries, even trying to work
in a proper manner; so the institute of press-services, in general,
can be evaluated as extremely poor. Press-secretaries often display
passivity by the request of their supervisors, working only with
some mass media, forgetting or ignoring the others or remembering
them only when necessary. Sometimes they are such on their own.
Last year there was another unique case, related to the work of
press-services, and it was widely discussed, i.e. an incident with
the head of the Press-service of the NKR Foreign Ministry, who in an
interview with a Yerevan-based newspaper could not contain himself
and used unacceptable language. The news about it was spread quickly
in papers and caused a wave of criticism.
Our next "stop" is the mass media themselves, most precisely, their
managers, trying their best in the efforts to hamper the work of their
own reporters: as a result, it is almost impossible to find materials
to describe the real life in Artsakh or cover the problems concerning
the people, living there, on the air or on the pages of newspapers. We
can recall that once last year an Artsakh public radio reporter found
herself under a tough pressing and was even punished by the Chairman
of the Public TV Council just for a harmless question, whether the
First Lady would vote or not. By the way, it is not the first such
experience that the mentioned reporter has got: according to her,
the Council once discussed the question of her dismissal for a report
about the Police, which was not written in a "positive" manner.
Unfortunately, it is just the managers of mass media who quite often
discredit the information field: be it out of fear, the intention to
please the authorities and not to lose their profitable jobs. All
this leads to the degradation of mass media; many of them already
resemble the Soviet media, most of journalists display conformism and
some, getting tired of struggle, are not active as they have been
before. So against such a backdrop, those journalists who publish
materials about the life and problems of people, criticizing the
authorities and presenting people's dissatisfaction, are treated
as opposition. And this is the best option, because they are mostly
called spies or traitors.
The above is what has been spoken about publicly, but journalists
can recall many incidents of that kind. Nearly two dozen journalists
mentioned many of such cases during their meeting with the NKR
President. They informed him about the problems and obstacles in
their work. The President promised that problems would be gradually
settled, but nothing has been changed so far. Even those problems
that required neither special efforts, nor time, just goodwill, have
not been resolved. So the lack of any improvement and the worsening
trend mean that there is no desire to do so, and that the issues raised
during the meeting have not been properly addressed. As a result, more
or less professional journalists from the mass media, financed from the
state budget, simply do nothing, at the same time continuing to work.
However, some new people come up to take their place, but the best
example of their work is the present day Artsakh TV.
AnÑ~Cway, the year was not only marked with lessons. There were
positive moments as well: for example, journalists were not beaten last
year, they were not thrown to jail, i.e. there was no direct physical
pressure. In addition, we have a new newspaper. And another good event:
Hrant Aleksanyan's book "Information from the non-recognized country"
was published.
These are the lessons that, as it seems to me, might have some
importance to avoid mistakes in the future, to change the situation
in the information field and ensure the progress surely required for
the development of democracy in the country, the need of which is so
much spoken about.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress