“Aravot” argues that the previous administration’s policy on A1+, a rare television company critical of the authorities that has been kept off the air since 2002, has had “numerous ramifications for the society” and that the “poor state” of TV journalism in Armenia today is the most conspicuous of them.
“That’s why we have talented TV journalists among us, but no TV journalism culture. In conditions of sweeping purges in the media environment there is hardly a person in television who would be truly responsible to the society for his or her words,” the paper writes.
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” also discusses the current state of television in Armenia. It writes ironically that “the free, but [at the same time] responsible behavior” of the operating television companies has resulted in a situation when “99 percent of Armenia’s population know more about soap operas and serials than about, for instance, the Karabakh negotiations or the size of the country’s foreign debt.”
“Haykakan Zhamanak” claims that according to “information coming from former Yerevan mayor Gagik Beglarian’s surroundings”, his bodyguards have been summoned, unofficially, to the police agency fighting organized crime and “interrogated for hours.”
“We have also learned that the State Revenue Committee has started audits at certain enterprises owned by Beglarian,” the paper asserts.
“Hraparak” sarcastically warns Armenian state officials “not to let their wives or their wives’ friends” have invitation tickets to avoid “protocol incidents” at Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Aida, due to be premiered at the Opera House in Yerevan on December 23. The paper clearly draws parallels with the incident that occurred earlier this month in which Yerevan mayor Gagik Beglarian had a dispute over his wife’s seating at a concert in Yerevan by Spanish tenor Placido Domingo that eventually cost him his job.
(Tigran Avetisian)