Clarifications Regarding the State of Emergency: Arpine Hovhannisyan

Former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Arpine Hovhannisyan addressed the state of emergency declared in Armenia due to the coronavirus on her Facebook page.

"Thus, from March 16 at 18:30 until April 14 at 9:00, a state of emergency was declared in Armenia. During this period, we all need reasonableness, unity, and sobriety. I am confident that, through joint efforts, we can overcome the challenges we all face. God protect us and our country.

Considering that I have received numerous questions regarding the regime of the state of emergency, I will try to address the main restrictions that will be in place during this period in a more layman's language. There will be several posts based on the areas of restrictions.

MEDIA OUTLETS

The government's decision on declaring a state of emergency includes specific provisions for mass media, outlining certain restrictions.

Specifically, if the information published by a media outlet relates in any way to the coronavirus (existing and new cases of infection in Armenia and outside, health status of individuals, sources of infection, contacts of existing or potential carriers, those undergoing examination (testing) and the number of isolated individuals, as well as any information that could cause panic or create a panic situation), it must reference the information provided by the commandant's office. This applies to print media, television, as well as information published on internet sites and social media.

Materials prepared by the mass media should not contradict official information and should reproduce it as closely as possible. In other words, if it is currently confirmed by an official announcement that there are 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus, media outlets cannot include information in their reports claiming that, according to their sources, the number of confirmed cases is higher.

Reports violating the conditions of the state of emergency are subject to immediate removal. This means that if a media outlet publishes a report contradicting the information provided by the commandant's office, such a report must be removed by the media outlet.

Note: There are no restrictions on news materials that do not relate to the coronavirus. The specified restrictions apply EXCLUSIVELY to materials connected to the coronavirus. This means that for news unrelated to coronavirus, media outlets will continue to operate as they did before the state of emergency.