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    Categories: 2018

Press aide makes evasive comments on Armenian PM’s media remarks

ArmenPress, Armenia



Press aide makes evasive comments on Armenian PM's media remarks



The following is the text of Nelli Babayan's report published on the
website of the Armenian pro-opposition Aravot newspaper on 20 June
headlined "'The TV company that ran an anti-state propaganda, will no
longer do so, as it has realised its mistake': The prime minister's
press secretary"; subheadings inserted editorially:

The media outlet, which, as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, is
running anti-state propaganda, will no longer do so, the prime
minister's press secretary, Arman Yeghoyan told Aravot.am. Pashinyan
wrote on his Facebook page on 18 June: "Certain TV companies, in fact
making use of the unlimited possibility of the freedom of speech, have
decided to carry out anti-state propaganda. This is perhaps one of
those cases, when some people again and again confuse the civility of
the authorities with weakness or naivety. Don't do that. Just don't do
that".

Aravot.am asked the prime minister's press secretary several
questions. In particular, we asked, which TV company was waging
anti-state propaganda and what were the specific manifestations of
anti-state propaganda of the TV company.

Yeghoyan refused to mention names: "I cannot add anything to what the
prime minister said as regards names and cases. If the prime minister
deems it convenient, he will make comments himself and give names.
What I can say is that the prime minister's words did not apply and
will never apply to criticism of the government. The prime minister
will never reprimand any media outlet for criticising him".

Yeghoyan did not give a specific response to our second question as to
what anti-state propaganda might mean and what the prime minister
implied: "Anti-state propaganda is anti-state propaganda". Answering
our remark that the prime minister's and other users' Facebook pages
circulated in comments the names of Yerkir Media [affiliated to the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun] and the Kentron TV
company [affiliated to businessman Gagik Tsarukyan, head of the
Prosperous Armenia party and part of the Tsarukyan bloc], Yeghoyan
said: "No, not Kentron either. And it is not Yerkir Media".

Nevertheless, what are the threats for this TV company, if it
continues to run anti-state propaganda? The prime minister's words
sound as a threat and there is an allusion between the following
lines: "confuse the civility of the authorities with weakness or
naivety". Answering these questions of ours, Yeghoyan said: "The prime
minister expressed his opinion, but there is no threat either in his
direct speech or between the lines. It is just an appeal to concrete
addressees and these addressees have already realised what they
deliberately did and have realised this. The media outlets that do not
regard themselves as addressees of the appeal do not have anything to
worry about. Even those, who these words were addressed to, have
nothing to worry about. They have already realised their mistake. If
they want to make comments, there are no problems".

Yeghoyan stressed: "There were no threats. It was an appeal not to
misuse the broadness of the prime minister's thoughts". Asked as to
what could happen if the opposite happened, the press secretary
answered: "I have already said that nothing specific is going to
happen. They will no longer misuse it".

Asked as to how it had become clear that they had understood it - they
apologised, called, or they no longer ran anti-state propaganda,
Yeghoyan said: "This is based on common logic: When a person takes a
step and the step becomes visible, the concrete person, who took the
step, realises that the general statement is about him". Yeghoyan gave
the following answer to our remark that the person could fail to
understand that the general statement is addressed to him: "In this
case, I am sure that they understood it, as we are dealing with very
experienced people".

Source: Aravot website, Yerevan, in Russian 1446 gmt 20 Jun 18

Edgar Tavakalian: