State of Emergency

Now that a state of emergency has been declared in the Republic of Armenia following today’s clashes between police and supporters of former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, Blogian wonders whether bloggers will be affected.

According to the law, the government now has the right to crack down on the media and publications of a political nature.

Media reports concerning “state and interior issues” can be published exclusively using official information provided by the authorities (does this apply to blogs based in Armenia?)

[Distribution] of all kinds of political publications (print) are banned unless approved by the authorities

I’m sure foreign citizens and Internet activity are being monitored although whether the authorities will act on information disseminated though blogs remains to be seen.

Published:: 03.02.08 / 2am by Onnik

Category:: Armenia, Armenia Presidential Election 2008, Blogs, Demonstrations, Media, News Briefs, Rallies, Revolution, State of Emergency, Violence

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Onnik 03.02.08 / 4am

Blogian posts more on the possible effect the declaration of a state of emergency might have on the media and bloggers inside Armenia.

A1Plus is not the only media outlet that has stopped reporting the ongoing presidential election protests in Armenia due to de jure state of emergency. Websites that were updated several times an hour are now silent complying with Armenia’s Constitution that gives censorship rights to the government when the latter declares state of emergency.

Hetq.am, a website of investigative journalists that I occasionally contribute to, informs (in Armenian) that they “have to limit their work” under the law while ArmeniaNow, a source widely seen as among the most objective, has stopped updating its homepage without even reporting the State of Emergency.

Armenian blogs have become somewhat passive too in the last few hours but it is too early to conclude that they perceive their activities to be limited under the law.

http://blogian.hayastan.com/2008/03/02/armenia-media-stop-reporting-protests-after-state-of-emergency/

nazarian 03.02.08 / 5am

I guess the burden of disseminating information now is on the shoulders of the bloggers and foreign based media.

Here is the latest Levon Ter-Petrosian press release (March 1, 2008).

http://hnazarian.blogspot.com/2008/03/blog-post.html

That should have been March 2, 2008 since it’s already March 2 in Armenia.

Aram 03.02.08 / 12pm

Welcome back to politics Levon. Thanks for revving up the masses, handing out weapons to your zombies and driving the bus to the edge of the cliff knowing that the authorities will react. All this happened while Levon was in his warm mansion with a full belly while the yearning people got their heads kicked in. (sound familiar from 12, 13, 17 yrs ago???) He is good at this setup. And after each such episode, he gains more followers. Amazing.

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