Today marks “World Press Freedom Day. On the occasion, a group of young Hetq reporters took to the streets of Yerevan and distributed copies of the Hetq weekly newspaper.
While handing out copies, the reporters explained the importance of having a free press to passersby. Several government officials also took copies of the paper. Given the tradition of news outlets in Armenia being sponsored by this or that political leader or businessman, the first question by many who took the paper was, “whose paper is it?” They also were interested to know what issues the paper covers.
Larisa, one of the passersby, said, “I would really like for our press to be less partisan in the political sense and that it freely covers any issue out there. I must confess I don’t read the papers now because I already know what they will write. The same faces and views, there’s nothing new.”[[wysiwyg_imageupload:23:]]
Another passerby said that there is no free press in Armenia and that the papers have become the personal news outlets for officials.
Even local cops stopped our reporters on the street, asking what they were doing and why. The police were interested enough to ask what issues the paper covered and if the reporters had received permission from the Yerevan Municipality to publicly distribute papers.
Today marks “World Press Freedom Day. On the occasion, a group of young Hetq reporters took to the streets of Yerevan and distributed copies of the Hetq weekly newspaper.
While handing out copies, the reporters explained the importance of having a free press to passersby. Several government officials also took copies of the paper. Given the tradition of news outlets in Armenia being sponsored by this or that political leader or businessman, the first question by many who took the paper was, “whose paper is it?” They also were interested to know what issues the paper covers.
Larisa, one of the passersby, said, “I would really like for our press to be less partisan in the political sense and that it freely covers any issue out there. I must confess I don’t read the papers now because I already know what they will write. The same faces and views, there’s nothing new.”[[wysiwyg_imageupload:23:]]
Another passerby said that there is no free press in Armenia and that the papers have become the personal news outlets for officials.
Even local cops stopped our reporters on the street, asking what they were doing and why. The police were interested enough to ask what issues the paper covered and if the reporters had received permission from the Yerevan Municipality to publicly distribute papers.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:20:]]When the police saw that all was aboveboard and that nothing illegal or suspicious was taking place, one of the officers asked, “But why is your paper have a yellow color to it?”
Source: by Grisha Balasanyan http://hetq.am/en/society/hetq-15/ (May 03, 2010)