Tuesday, October 29 2019 19:13

ArmInfo.The Committee for the  Protection of Freedom of Speech issued a statement in connection with  the announcement of a media event on Facebook published by the head  of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs  (AIISA) Stepan Safaryan.

 According to the statement, the Committee  calls on the AIISA to reconsider its approach to working with the  media, evaluating the institute's approach as discriminatory towards  the media, considering it unacceptable and dangerous in terms of  freedom of speech. A public organization in its essence should be an  open structure and show interest in wide coverage of its activities,  the document reads.

Yesterday, the head of AIISA Stepan Safaryan wrote on his Facebook  page a post for the media, in which, in particular, he noted that for  the websites: News.am, Hayeli.am, 168.am, Yerevan Today, 7or.am,  Livenews.am and the television companies the 5th Channel and Yerkir  Media entrance to the event initiated by his institute "20 years  after October 27: a look into the past, lessons and thoughts'' will  be closed.

 ''Although in conditions of the current situation on the information  field of Armenia the media serve various political interests,  nonetheless, public organizations should not display discrimination  based on their sympathy or antipathy. Given the above, we urge AIISA  to reconsider its approach to working with the media, to show  tolerance for them and to eliminate discrimination in the future'',  the Committee summarized.  It is noteworthy that today at the seminar  on "Transparency of Real Owners", the head of the Freedom of  Information Center, Shushan Doydoyan, announced the importance of  this discussion not only for business companies, but also for the  media space.  "Today there are serious problems associated with the  transparency of the media. People make mutual accusations about the  bias of this or that publication, but there are no grounds and facts  testifying to who is the real owner of this or that media.  Unfortunately, political orders are carried out through media  resources.  In this context, it is extremely important to publish  reliable information about who controls the operation of a website or  publication, which political party these media report to, and where  the funding comes from.  This must be honestly recognized first of  all by its readers. It turns out that the media position themselves  as independent media, but at the same time receive financial  assistance from a particular political party or faction.  Shushan  Doydoyan expressed confidence that the journalistic society itself  should prevent the recurrence of such cases. "In fact, such attempts  are generally unacceptable, since in the future they can become a  very bad precedent'', she summed up.