Tuesday, March 19 2019 15:24

ArmInfo.The new government of Armenia has no "favorites" among the media, and for us democracy is an exceptional value. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said  this on March 19 at a press conference, referring to the publication  of one of the MPs of the My Step bloc, in which the parliamentarian  defined a circle of "reliable" media.

According to the Prime Minister, there is a global problem in  countering fake news in the world. This problem, as the head of the  Armenian government pointed out, is particularly relevant for  countries that have declared freedom of speech to be one of the  highest values of democracy, where there is no censorship and  persecution of the media.

But in order to ensure freedom of speech and the media, including its  financial independence, the Armenian government intends to establish  a "Media Assistance Fund." To ensure the full independence of the  Fund and its supported media, the government intends to attract  private funds. "The Fund ill not operate with funds from the state  budget in order to exclude any levers of state influence on the  media," Pashinyan said.

At the same time, the Prime Minster touched upon publications that  the situation related to the possible expulsion of the media from the  territories they occupy today is the revenge of the head of  government.  "Let's get rid of the framework of traditional logic. I  don't revenge anyone and I don't intend to, especially considering  that I myself was one of you at one time," the PM said. According to  him, the new government of Armenia will not take action against the  media, except in cases of gross violation of the law.

Earlier it was reported that a number of Armenian media outlets that  are located in the building at 1/3 Byuzand, located on the balance of  the Yerevan Municipality, received a notification from the  Municipality administration, in which they were unreasonably proposed  to leave the occupied territories within five days.  Similar  notifications were also sent to the current media at Arshakunyats 2  and Isahakyan 28, from the State Property Management Committee of the  Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of the Republic of  Armenia.