My Step Group Presents Secret Draft Against Media

A group of deputies from the My Step faction is proposing amendments to the Law on Mass Media, aimed at prohibiting references to anonymous sources. However, it is noteworthy that the draft concerning media has been presented to the National Assembly for the first time in its history without discussions with media outlets. Yesterday, media organizations learned about these amendments directly from the draft. Such an approach has never been adopted before, as it threatens freedom of speech; after all, references to anonymous sources are made by media outlets worldwide, and it has never crossed the mind of lawmakers in any country to present a draft secretly.

The proposal suggests amending Article 3 of the Law on Mass Media to clarify several concepts, including anonymous sources. They are proposing to ban references to sources that do not contain the data stipulated by the Law on Mass Media or are anonymous sources (with the exception of circumstances provided in part 2 of Article 9 of the law, specifically if the information was obtained from a news agency, stems from a public statement or response by the disputing party or its representative, or a document coming from them, a public statement, official documents of state bodies, or the literal or faithful reproduction of information contained in any other media or copyright work, provided that a reference to that source was made at the time of dissemination).

First, let’s note that even developed countries have not found a formula to determine which information disseminators qualify as media, and which are blogs or news disseminated via social networks. Now, people have emerged in our parliament who challenge the world.

Of course, the aim of the draft is understood to be the fight against undesirable publications regarding Nikol Pashinyan's family by various Telegram channels. However, this draft will not succeed in combating news circulated through Telegram or other formats; they will continue to operate as they do today, while diligent media outlets will once again suffer. It will turn out to be another unproductive step, just like what has been done in the past three years along the path of judicial reform.