TV companies became platform for National Security Service and police - Ashot Melikyan (video)
The seizure of a police station in Yerevan by the Sasna Dzrer armed group was covered by local TV companies in a way as if there was one conducting baton for all of them, Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speech, said on Wednesday. “During the latest events in Armenia, it became more evident that TV companies are fully controlled by the county’s leadership. They became a platform for the National Security Service and the police. The media should perform their functions, never be satisfied with the information provided by state officials and turn to other sources for information,” he said adding that politicians and "courtier" intellectuals carry out the same policy. Ashot Melikyan says members of the Sasna Dzrer group cannot be called terrorists for many reasons. “It is well known that terrorists do not have a homeland. No one can say that members of the Sasna Dzrer group do not have a homeland or there are not patriots. Terrorists hope to have the maximum number of fatalities, but Sasna Dzrer did not have such an objective set before them. Terrorists do not have hundreds of thousands of supporters and never stand up for their demands but we saw that thousands of citizens had gathered on Khorenatsi street to support the Sasna Dzrer group and their demands. Terrorists are not given an opportunity to communicate with the media, while Sasna Dzrer had that opportunity. I do not remember such a precedent. And finally, terrorists are not charged with attempts to seize a building or structure.”
