"Efendi Was Wounded Again": Simonyan and Keosayan React to the Suspension of Sputnik Armenia Radio Broadcast

A drama worth 500,000 drams: This is how Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the international information agency 'Rossiya Segodnya', reacted to the suspension of Sputnik Armenia radio's broadcasts. "A drama worth 500,000 drams. Efendi was wounded again," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Simonyan's husband, director Tigran Keosayan, whose show was also found to have violations, commented on the suspension of Sputnik Armenia as well. "Only a cowardly politician goes after the media. Their actions confirm the truth of everything I said in my program," he noted.

It should be mentioned that the broadcasting of Sputnik Armenia has been suspended for 30 days, and the re-broadcaster, 'Tospа' radio company, was stripped of its license for a month. This decision was made today at a meeting of the Commission on Television and Radio. In addition to the suspension, two administrative cases have been initiated against the company, which has been fined 500,000 drams.

The Commission found that certain provisions of the 'Law on Audiovisual Media' were violated on-air. According to the drawn up report, the first case pertains to the program 'Friday with Tigran Keosayan'. During the November 17 broadcast, the author and host of the program allegedly made sarcastic and derogatory statements about Armenia and the Armenian people, issuing assessments that the foreign political commentator and host did not have the moral right to make.

The second administrative case concerns the 'Abovyan Time' program. According to the report, opinions and claims were voiced that not only do not correspond to reality, but also provoke evident panic among the people of Armenia. During the program, according to the Commission, unreliable information sourced from unverified sources was aired.

It should be added that Keosayan’s program was not prepared by the Armenian editorial board but was part of the Russian broadcast.