Friday,
Opposition Leaders Question Government Crackdown On ‘Fake News’
• Naira Bulghadarian
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Bright Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukian (R) at a news conference
in Yerevan, March 27, 2019.
Leaders of the opposition minority in Armenia’s parliament questioned on Friday
a crackdown on false news reports and social media comments ordered by Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian.
One of them, Bright Armenia Party (LHK) leader Edmon Marukian, expressed
concern over the order, while admitting that slanderous and offensive public
statements have become commonplace in the country.
“There is definitely concern regarding freedom of speech,” Marukian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “I can’t imagine the methods with which it is
possible to fight against fake news.”
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Pashinian ordered the National
Security Service (NSS) crack down on anyone who uses mass media or social media
to “manipulate public opinion.” He singled out “fake” social media users making
untrue claims on government policies or calling for violence.
Asked to comment on the order, Marukian said: “I can’t imagine how that is
going to be done. When concrete steps are taken with regard to
counterpropaganda waged against us I will welcome it.”
Marukian referred to what he described as online smear campaigns targeting
senior members of his party. He said law-enforcement authorities recently
opened a criminal case in connection with threats and verbal abuse reported by
the LHK.
“Let’s see what happens now,” added the LHK leader. “But I want to say that
fighting against that is very difficult. It also raises the issue of protecting
freedom of speech and many other concerns.”
Armenia - Gevorg Petrosian, a parliament deputy from the Prosperous Armenia
Party, at a news briefing in Yerevan, April 1, 2019.
Gevorg Petrosian, a senior lawmaker representing the opposition Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK), also complained about the “hooligan atmosphere” on social
media. He wondered if Pashinian decided to deal with the problem now because of
a “change in the correlation of fake news” which is not favorable for the
Armenian government.
Petrosian also said that the problem must be tackled by the Armenian police,
not the NSS. “The NSS has much more important things to do than to deal with
fake news,” he added.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, echoed the opposition
concerns, saying that his office will closely monitor NSS actions to make sure
that they do not limit press freedom. “I want to stress that the monitoring
will be at the center of my personal attention,” Tatoyan told reporters.
All forms of libel were decriminalized in Armenia about a decade ago.
Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian insisted, meanwhile, that the authorities want
to target only those who spread offensive and false statements that “threaten
national security.”
“If you look at separate instances you may not see abuse of freedom of
expression,” he said. “But if you look at the bigger picture and see that that
is being managed from a center and [those reports] are interconnected, they can
receive such an evaluation.”
Zeynalian could not say just how the authorities will be combatting the
“manipulations” mentioned by Pashinian. “We don’t yet have a formula regarding
it,” admitted the minister.
Pashinian demanded the NSS crackdown after lambasting unnamed “former
oligarchs” who he said falsely accuse his government of pushing up fuel prices
in the country with its taxation policies.
No Charges For Kocharian Over 1998 ‘Election Fraud’
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former Deputy Defense Minister Vahan Shirkhanian is released from
custody, 25 June, 2018.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has refused to launch a formal criminal
investigation into allegations to that former President Robert Kocharian rigged
a presidential election to come to power in 1998.
Vahan Shirkhanian, who was a deputy defense minister at the time, made the
allegations in an incriminating open letter to Kocharian released last month.
He claimed that Karen Demirchian, Armenia’s Soviet-era leader, was the rightful
winner of the two-round election held in February-March 1998.
Demirchian refused to concede defeat, alleging widespread fraud strongly denied
by Kocharian and his allies. Western election monitors reported serious
irregularities during the ballot.
Shirkhanian stood by his claims when he was questioned by the Special
Investigative Service (SIS) later in March.
The SIS said on Friday that it will not open a criminal case because of the
statute of limitations. It also refused to act on Shirkhanian’s claims that
Kocharian was not eligible to run for president in the first place. The SIS
explained that similar allegations made in the past were investigated by
law-enforcement authorities and proved unsubstantiated.
Shirkhanian accepted the SIS explanations, while deploring the fact that
Kocharian will not be prosecuted for vote rigging.
ARMENIA -- Then Armenian President Robert Kocharian talks to the media at a
polling station in Yerevan, February 19, 2008
The ex-president, who ruled Armenia for ten years, was arrested in December on
different coup charges which he rejects as politically motivated.
During the 1998 presidential race, Shirkhanian was a figure close to then
Defense Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, arguably the country’s most powerful man.
Sarkisian and Demirchian subsequently co-founded a political alliance that won
parliamentary elections held in May 1999.
Sarkisian became prime minister while Demirchian parliament speaker as a
result. Both leaders as well as six other officials were killed in the October
1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament.
In his open letter, Shirkhanian also accused Kocharian of covering up the
attack. For his part, the ex-president claimed in a memoir published in 2018
that Shirkhanian tried to use the shock assassination to replace him as head of
state.
In 2015, Shirkhanian was arrested and charged with plotting to seize power
together with members of a clandestine militant group led by Artur Vartanian,
an obscure man who had reportedly lived in Spain for many years. He, Vartanian
and about two dozen other individuals went on trial a few months later.
Armenia - An alleged 2015 photograph of members of an Armenian militant group
arrested on coup charges.
The National Security Service (NSS) said at the time that Vartanian and his
associates drew up detailed plans for the seizure of the presidential
administration, government, parliament, Constitutional Court and state
television buildings in Yerevan. It claimed that Shirkhanian agreed to
participate in the alleged plot and suggested in 2015 that the armed group
assassinate then President Serzh Sarkisian, instead of focusing on the seizure
of the key state buildings.
Shirkhanian denied the accusations as politically motivated. He was released
from custody in June 2018 pending the outcome of the high-profile trial.
Vartanian and core members of his group remain behind bars.
Tax Authorities Move To Arrest Armenian Tycoon
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Businessman Davit Ghazarian (C) shows Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
around a newly built dairy factory of his Spayka company, Yerevan, March 26,
2019.
Ten days after inaugurating a new factory in the presence of Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian, the official owner of Armenia’s leading freight and
agribusiness company faced on Friday tax evasion charges which he strongly
denied.
The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said that the Spayka company evaded over 7
billion drams ($14.4 million) in import taxes as it asked a court in Yerevan to
allow the pre-trial arrest of Davit Ghazarian.
In a statement, the SRC said that the accusations stem from large quantities of
cheese and agricultural produce which were imported to Armenia by another
company, Greenproduct, in 2015 and 2016. It claimed that Greenproduct is
controlled by Spayka and that the latter rigged its customs documents to pay
less taxes from those imports.
The court held hearings on the SRC demand later in the day. Ghazarian’s lawyer,
Karen Sardarian, told reporters that the court will announce its decision on
Monday.
Ghazarian angrily denied the accusations and accused the authorities of
“paralyzing” his company’s operations at a news conference held before the
court hearings. He insisted that Spayka is not connected to Greenproduct and
has only carried out cargo shipments for it.
Armenia - A greenhouse belonging to the Spayka company, November 13, 2018.
The businessman said that she was charged because he refused to pay
Greenproduct’s back taxes after being summoned to the SRC late on
Thursday.“They told me, ‘Either you will sign [a relevant document] or be
arrested,’” he claimed. “I view this as Spayka’s persecution by the SRC …
because nobody from Greenproduct is willing to pay up.”
Ghazarian implied that Pashinian had a hand in the criminal charges brought
against him. “He [the SRC chief] went to the boss and told him that we owe 7
billion drams,” he said. “The boss, our prime minister, whom we all respect,
said that ‘if they owe the money then they must pay it.’”
As recently as on March 26, Pashinian visited Spayka’s sprawling premises in
Yerevan’s southern Noragavit suburb to attend the inauguration of a
state-of-the-art dairy factory built there. Ghazarian showed him around the
facility.
A March 26 statement by the prime minister’s office gave details of the $15
million business project. “120 new jobs have been created under the project,”
it stressed.
Ghazarian said that Spayka planned to invest another $100 million this year.
The Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has already frozen planned
funding for the project because of the tax fraud case, he said.
Armenia - Heavy trucks belonging to the Spayka company are parked in Yerevan,
April 19, 2017.
Spayka was set up in 2001 and has since become Armenia’s leading producer and
exporter of fruits, vegetables and some prepared foodstuffs. The company
currently employs more than 1,200 people mostly working in its greenhouses and
buys produce from thousands of Armenian farmers. It also has a large fleet of
heavy trucks.
Ownership of Spayka has long been a subject of Armenian media speculation. Some
media outlets have linked it to the family of former President Robert Kocharian
and his successor Serzh Sarkisian’s son-in-law, Mikael Minasian. Ghazarian
again asserted on Friday that he is the company’s sole real owner and has no
“business relationship” with Minasian.
Spayka was already fined about 2.5 billion drams ($5 million) for profit tax
evasion in July last year, two months after Sarkisian’s resignation and
Pashinian’s rise to power. The company agreed to pay the fine at the time.
Ghazarian claimed on Friday that that SRC penalty was also unfair and that he
agreed to pay it in order to have Spayka’s bank accounts unfrozen.
First Arrest Reported In Armenian ‘Fake News Probe’
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia - Artur Vanetsian, director of the National Security Service (NSS),
speaks to journalists in Yerevan, 18 June 2018.
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) said on Friday that it has arrested a
person spreading “disinformation” on Facebook as part of a crackdown ordered by
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The NSS director, Artur Vanetsian, said that individual had opened and “hid
behind” a Facebook page called “Dukhov Hayastan Open Society.” He declined to
identify him or her.
The page, which has more than 2,200 followers, mainly contains derogatory posts
on Pashinian and his associates. It was most recently updated on Thursday
evening.
“There is a well-known Facebook page which spreads clear disinformation,”
Vanetsian told reporters. “It is the ‘Dukhov Hayastan Open Society’ which all
users know very well. The individual hiding behind that page has been
identified and arrested.”
“A criminal case regarding the spread of racial, religious and ethnic hatred
has been opened. Other details will be provided by the NSS press center,” he
said.
Pashinian on Thursday ordered Vanetsian to clamp down on “criminal circles”
that he said “spend millions on manipulating public opinion through the press
and social media.” “That’s a matter of national security,” he said, singling
out “fake” social media users.
“The instruction regarding fake users issued by the prime minister has been
executed,” Vanetsian declared when he announced the first arrest in the
crackdown demanded by Pashinian.
Armenia -- Shushan Doydoyan, head of the Center for Freedom of Information,
April 5, 2019
Some opposition politicians and civil rights activists have expressed concern
about Pashinian’s order, saying that it poses a threat to freedom of expression
in Armenia.
Shushan Doydoyan, the head of the Yerevan-based Center for Freedom of
Information, on Friday criticized it as hasty and unfounded. The NSS, which is
the successor to the Armenian branch of the Soviet KGB secret police, must not
deal with mass or social media content in any way, she said.
“There is no clear legal definition of what information can be deemed
manipulative,” Doydoyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “This [order] enables
any state body and the NSS in particular to arbitrarily decide whether a
particular report is manipulative or not.”
Doydoyan also said there is nothing wrong with citizens opening anonymous or
fake social media accounts to protect their privacy. She argued that Armenian
law provides for libel suits against anyone who makes offensive or slanderous
public statements.
“Why do we want to complicate the situation?” said Doydoyan. “We must avoid
resorting to any tough, crude legal interventions and creating an atmosphere of
fear.”
Press Review
“Zhamanak” reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has had telephone
conversations with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijan’s
President Ilham Aliyev following their March 29 meeting in Vienna. The Russian
Foreign Ministry said after those phone calls that Moscow is ready to help the
two leaders implement agreements reached by them in the Austrian capital. The
paper suggests that Aliyev and Pashinian may have only agreed to continue to
observe the ceasefire and that the Russians will help the warring sides prevent
major truce violations.
Lragir.am says that after the Vienna summit Yerevan and Baku “reaffirmed their
opposite approaches” to the Karabakh settlement. “Azerbaijan maintains that it
will restore its territorial integrity and refuses to discuss [Karabakh’s]
status, while the Armenian side says that Artsakh’s status and security are the
key issues of a settlement,” explains the publication. “The negotiating process
has returned to a period of hiatus.” It notes Putin’s phone calls with Aliyev
and Pashinian, saying that the leaders of the two other mediating powers, the
United States and France, did not personally react to the latest
Armenian-Azerbaijani summit. The publication too believes that Moscow is most
probably keen to bolster the ceasefire regime in the conflict zone.
“Zhoghovurd” comments on Pashinian’s calls for “very harsh” government action
against individuals who he said “manipulate public opinion” through mass and
social media. The paper says that the best way to combat fake news is to
increase people’s “media literacy.” “Especially in a country which is in a
state of war and whose citizens can be targets of various propaganda and
sabotage ploys and other criminal practices,” it says. “This is what the
National Security Service (NSS) should focus its resources on because it is
obliged to guarantee not only the physical but also information security of
citizens.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” voices strong support for Pashinian’s declared campaign
against “fake news,” saying that they pose a threat to national security. The
paper edited by Pashinian’s wife, Anna Hakobian, says that false reports about
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks could negatively affect the combat readiness
of Armenia’s armed forces. It says the authorities should also crack down on
those who falsely predict an imminent depreciation of the national currency.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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