Armenia’s 2018 revolution marked a critical juncture for its path to democracy. 

In April 2018, peaceful protests across Armenia, known as the Velvet Revolution, culminated in the resignation of the then Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. Sargsyan’s long-standing semi- authoritarian rule came to an end, and Armenians elected Nikol Pashinyan, a protest leader, opposition MP, and former journalist, as the new prime minister. 

Since the revolution, the country has faced multiple crises. Armenia has been shaken by a rekindled war in Nagorno-Karabakh, an attempted coup d’état, hybrid warfare conducted by Azerbaijan, and multiple anti-government demonstrations. After the revolution, Yerevan started to break away from Moscow and turn towards the west with this shift reaching its peak in the last few months. Despite numerous challenges, Armenia has demonstrated significant progress towards consolidating democracy, being identified as one of the top 10 democratizers in the 2022 V-DM Democracy Report. 

All these crises significantly impacted the state of press freedom in the country, and the path ahead to democracy and a free press remains fraught with challenges. Since the Velvet Revolution, press freedom has improved significantly, but the media environment has become increasingly polarized, mirroring the political and social polarization.

Central problems for press freedom include the lack of independence of the public broadcaster, restrictive legislation, and political polarization, with the latter deepening the distrust towards the media. According to the 2023 report on Freedom of Expression and Media Consumption 47% of the population does not trust the media. The  interference in the media which takes place via economic and/or legal means is outsized and hampers  media organizations’ financial and editorial independence. 

IPI spoke with Nouneh Sarkissian, the director of the Media Initiatives Center, a civil society organization working on press freedom and media development, and Liana Sayadyan and Edik Baghdasaryan, Deputy Editor-in-chief and Editor-in-chief of Hetq, a major independent  investigative newsroom based in Yerevan, about the state of press freedom in the aftermath of the Velvet Revolution. 

Political and media polarization fueling each other

“It’s complicated, it’s a big mess,” Nouneh Sarkissian tells us when asked about press freedom and political polarization in the country. She explains that all the crises Armenia has faced in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic – which hit Armenia very hard – the war with Azerbaijan, and the border demarcation deal, have exacerbated polarization among politicians and society. She adds that pro-government and government-critical media are extremely hostile to one another, and the civil society’s efforts to bring balance, are not always welcomed.

“We react to violations of any kind of media, whether they are pro-government or government-critical,” Sarkissian says.

The 2019 Revolution, she explains, disrupted the media market. While this was broadly a positive development, it also introduced new, unresolved challenges.

“Many media outlets were coordinated by various pro-government groups and even directly by the government. This control was often subtle and hidden; After the revolution, the system collapsed, which was good overall but not so good for individual media outlets. The market, which had been shaped by authorities and ‘grey eminences,’ collapsed.” Sarkissian says.

This collapse led to the emergence of pluralism, accompanied by sharp polarization, which remains a major challenge for the media. “The levels of polarization are so high that it becomes very difficult to do your job,” Sayadyan says, and adds that most media organizations are influenced by political groups or parties, which have their own agendas. “These media sources are more interested in serving political interests than in providing unbiased information.”

“Journalists are not welcomed”: Verbal and Physical assaults against media professionals   

For Hetq, which investigates corruption since 2001, consistent pressure and smear campaigns from the government continued unabated after the Velvet Revolution. Baghdasaryan and Sayadyan tell IPI that the media outlet is frequently subject to smear campaigns and verbal attacks from the authorities. 

“The officials label us as so-called ‘yellow press,’ or tabloid press claiming we are not investigative journalists. They accuse us of defamation and threaten us with lawsuits, but they never really take this to court,” Sayadyan says. 

The only positive change after the Revolution Hetq editors notice is that journalists are less frequently subjected to physical violence. However, they fear this might soon change, given the violence used against journalists at the anti-government protest rallies.

The latest case of violence against journalists was during  the riots on June 12, when at least 10 journalists and camera operators were injured as security forces used stun grenades after protesters attempted to storm the Parliament building and breach police barricades, throwing rocks and bottles at the police. 

Prime Minister Pashinyan was set to address Parliament at the time, but journalists were not allowed to attend the session. As tension rose in the hall, journalists were forced out by the parliament’s security forces. According to Sayadyan, this decision was never explained by the government. 

“Journalists are not welcome, I see that the government is scared of the journalists,” Sarkissian says. 

Legislation hampering press freedom 

Legal constraints significantly hinder press freedom in Armenia, fostering an environment of self-censorship and economic vulnerability. Key legal challenges include the 2021 amendment to the Civil Code, which tripled fines for insult and defamation. This economic threat leads journalists to self-censorship to avoid severe financial penalties.

The broadcasting licensing system, designed by previous governments and unchanged by the current administration, makes it easier for pro-government media outlets to secure licenses which threatens media pluralism as the decisions about granting the licenses are ultimately made by the National Commission on Television and Radio (NCTR), members of which are all appointed by the President and the Parliament. 

Government interference is also evident in public broadcasting. The Prime Minister appoints six out of 7 members to the Council of Public Broadcasters, compromising its autonomy and allowing the government to influence public media content. 

“Public service media is used as a tool for propaganda by the current government,” Sayadyan says, adding that most of the appointment decisions are political. For example, Garegin Khumaryan, a former Public Radio director, did not have his contract renewed allegedly due to his critical article of Prime Minister Pashinyan.