No Longer Should Your Voice Be Heard on Air: Petros Ghazaryan Cuts Two Veteran Journalists from Public TV

The Acting Director of the News Division at Public Television of Armenia, Petros Ghazaryan, has laid off journalists Susan Badalyan and Liana Karapetyan as of January 11.

In an interview with Hraparak, Susan Badalyan stated, “I received an official notice that I am laid off effective March 1. That's all; I did not ask why.” Badalyan, who is regarded as one of Armenia's top social journalists, did not wish to answer further questions.

Journalist Liana Karapetyan made a statement regarding her layoff, portions of which we present below: “After 20 years of working at the news division of Public Television, the current director of #News, Petros Ghazaryan, decided not to continue working with me based on undisclosed criteria. I was not dismissed because there had to be valid reasons for that, which do not exist; otherwise, it would have been mentioned. I am not resigning of my own accord because television journalism has been my beloved profession my entire life, and Public Television is a home where I have spent 25 years since I was 17 (before working in the news division, I was a correspondent for the H1 ‘Main City’ program)...

Liana Karapetyan has been laid off without justification… The only response I received from Petros Ghazaryan was, ‘I am cutting the old employees’… Bravo, Petros, that’s a very courageous answer from you, but it is not an answer to a professional journalist's ‘why.’ This layoff is an arbitrary decision against a journalist with 20 years of experience in H1 news. The ‘old employee’ is a professional whose career and name have not been tarnished by political orders, scandalous or treacherous stories, or dirty PR, and for 20 years has not received a written warning or reprimand and has not had to write a report on work failures...

She clarified that after the notification of her layoff, she was told that her voice and name should no longer be heard on air. Furthermore, Petros Ghazaryan instructed her to vacate her desk and computer because they are needed for ‘newcomers’ in the news division.

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