A Significant Segment of the Media Is Under the Influence of Opposition Financial Centers — Karapetyan, Kocharyan, Sargsyan

YEREVAN — There is a phenomenon in Armenia that, prior to the revolution, was largely concentrated in the hands of the authorities, but after the revolution has come under the influence of centers operating within the opposition field. This concerns a substantial segment of the media.

Member of Parliament Arusyak Manavazyan of the Civil Contract faction wrote about this on her Facebook page, continuing:

“Before the revolution, many media outlets were financially dependent on the authorities and were therefore limited in their criticism.

“After the revolution, that dependency changed. Today, a significant part of the media is no longer financed by the government, but has instead come under the influence of major financial centers operating in the opposition field — Karapetyan, Kocharyan, and Sargsyan.

“As a result, an environment has formed in which circles with large financial resources attempt, in an active and long-term manner, to advance their political agenda, often resorting to disinformation, one-sided narratives, and aggressive counter-propaganda against the authorities.

“In the public sphere, information is widely circulated that certain political forces pay their affiliated media employees salaries reaching into the millions. As a result, some individuals have no difficulty setting aside journalistic ethics, engaging in self-promotion, and simultaneously spreading hate speech against the authorities.

“The problem is not criticism. Criticism is necessary in any healthy political system. The problem lies in the mechanism—when the media ceases to operate in the public interest and begins serving the goals of its financiers or political centers.

“At that point, journalistic ethics are pushed to the background, and the information space turns into a tool of manipulation.

“Those same media outlets, as a rule, do not position themselves as fully oppositional. They selectively provide platforms to representatives of various forces, yet even the lowest-quality or most meaningless posts by their financiers are actively disseminated.

“In this environment, high-quality, independent, and balanced media is rarely visible. It simply cannot financially compete with powerful but content-empty and low-quality production.

“This is not a statement against freedom of the press. On the contrary, the expectation is that journalists and media outlets be so independent and professional that they can objectively criticize the authorities while also not remaining silent about the mistakes of other political actors.

“There are also many positive developments in this country that are equally worthy of coverage.”