"Zhoghovurd" daily writes:
"When Nikol Pashinyan was still an editor, he probably knew very well that the print media is not only a media, but also an institution of public control, clash of opinions, archive, political memory. But today, already in the status of the Prime Minister, it is his government that deals another blow to the print media, not through market competition, but through legislative intervention.
Zhoghovurd daily learned that on March 25, the National Assembly discussed the package of amendments to the Government's "On Public and Individual Notices on the Internet" and related laws, which proposed to remove the requirement to publish notices and other documentary publications in the print media, replacing it with publication on the official azdarar.am website or on the website of the relevant organization. The reporter of the project, Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galya, explained that the current mechanism is no longer effective, and at the same time causes significant costs.
This approach was also presented in the public messages of the parliamentary discussion. In fact, the government says that the newspaper is outdated, the newspaper is no longer needed, and the priority is "Azdarar". But here there is a subtle, but extremely important circumstance. the state does not just change a technical solution, but eliminates one of the sources of survival of the printed press, which at least for years helped newspapers to maintain the minimum economic viability. In other words, it is not only about the notification format. it is about removing one of the financial pillars of the print media from the media field.
The government's rationale may even seem attractive at first glance: digitization, speed, cost reduction. But in fact, this is another case where the vitality of an entire sector is eliminated in the name of "efficiency". Because if the state was really concerned about informing the public, it could not nullify the role of newspapers in one fell swoop, but create a transitional, combined mechanism, both digital and printed. However, the hardest option was chosen: to transfer the entire stream to Internet platforms.
This is also a political decision. The government has been showing for a long time that the independent and critical press is not a democratic necessity for it, but unnecessary noise. And the print media, no matter how limited it is, still remains the platform that is outside the algorithmic dictates of the day, social network manipulations and the controlled environment of state digital platforms.
You may not like the newspaper, you may not read it, but the state has no right to make it economically meaningless with administrative solutions. The contradiction is even sharper in the case of Nikol Pashinyan. The man who came to politics from the press is actually participating in the final push of the print media to the margins by his government. This is not just politics, but a biographical contradiction.
The former editor, who should have understood the value of the breath of the press, today watches with silence or agreement how the last holes of that breath are closed. After all, this is not just a draft law.
This is an attitude toward print media, an attitude toward critical speech, an attitude toward an environment that has been an important part of public debate for years. And when this project becomes a law, it can be recorded that Pashinyan's government once again chose not to preserve the diversity of the press, but to narrow it down by virtue of a state decision. Thus, during the rule of the former editor, the print media does not receive support, but a new blow.
And that blow comes to the most painful place, the source of survival."
Details in today's issue of "Zhoghovurd" daily.
