Do Not Follow Those News Outlets and Do Not Ruin Your Nerves: Vahagn Aleksanyan

As it is an election year, opposition media have proliferated like rabbits, with new media outlets and news organizations popping up, often funded by dirty and corrupt money. Many of these outlets have direct ties to ongoing criminal cases, including drug-related offenses, filling the media space, elevating media terror to a new level. This was stated by Vahagn Aleksanyan, a member of the My Step parliamentary faction, during a discussion of the annual report on the activities of the Television and Radio Commission for 2024 and the state of freedom of information in the audiovisual media sector.

“The generation of hate speech by opposition media is at its maximum. I assume a similar level existed before October 27, 1999, when the Dashnak and allied press did everything to smear and spread hatred towards Vazgen Sargsyan and, why not, in some places towards Karen Demirchyan as well,” said the MP, accusing the opposition political mindset of promoting hatred against the ruling majority and its supporters, labeling them as Turks and traitors, while referring to their supporters as trash and Turks.

Addressing the opposition, Aleksanyan accused them of disseminating hate speech through their media daily. “This level of hate speech is abnormal. Just look at how many news outlets the opposition media conglomerate has opened. How many government media outlets do you know? The majority of the media landscape is in your hands, in the hands of your political leaders. What are you aiming to achieve with this? By continually repeating ‘Turk,’ ‘traitor,’ and ‘Turk traitor,’ do you think it will resonate with the people? The opposition media has stuck the people on a needle of lies and hatred. The amount of money spent on opposition media in Armenia could have made citizens quite satisfied with the previous government if it had been spent on Armenia instead,” the MP commented.

Aleksanyan called on citizens to rid themselves of hate speech and misinformation. “Do not follow those news outlets and do not ruin your nerves. This needs to come to an end. I do not know how, but it must. Certainly not in the way Robert Kocharyan brought about the end of ‘A1+,’ but it must end through specific legislative changes that require the money from drug lords and corruption to stay out of the media space. Because, excuse me, if murderers and cannibals are paying for the information, they are essentially advocating for murder and cannibalism,” stated the MP from the My Step faction.