Lusineh Grigoryan

During the twenty-day period after March 1st, when the media outlets in Armeniawere only permitted to publish officially sanctioned news, it was the Internet that became the alternate source for the dissemination of news and opinion.

And on March 2nd, when the Armenian “Internet Society” NGO, a group that registers .am domain names in Armenia, froze many information websites according to the decree of the National Security Agency the exchange of news and debate was concentrated in the blogs and social networks.

Some, for example the blogs, like media lawyer Davit Sandukhchyan, closed their blogs to outside comments from the public, only allowing close friends to see what was being written. They declared that blogs were also considered to be media outlets since according to the law regarding “mass media outlets” any given outlet that disseminates news over the public broadcast system having a specific address and which makes available to countless people a reserve of information, regardless of how often that news is updated, etc, is considered to be a media outlet.

The “A1+” blog also stopped operating. Shushan Harutyunyan, who manages the blog, stated that even though the blog wasn’t updated for twenty days her workload increased several fold during the period in question. Shushan relates that, “On the evening when the state of emergency was declared we posted an announcement about the news on the blog. During that one night we received more than 850 incoming comments. We stated that we weren’t going to update the blog but that our readers could exercise their rights and continue the discussion. For several hours daily I was just reading the comments sent in, editing out the profanity.”

She states that prior to this visitors to the blog restricted their comments to the issues published therein but during the state of emergency people started to exchange information and some even used the blog to locate their missing relatives.

Shushan opened a new page in her personal blog entitled “A Daily Minute of Respectful Silence for 20 Days”. Then she simply wrote the word - silence. She says that, “What was interesting was that some 1,000 entered the site to see how I was observing that “silence”. People left comments as well, either encouraging my efforts or the opposite.”
         
However only a few acted in such a manner. The blogosphere, which already had heated up before this, continued the political debate with even more energy. Artur Papyan states that the Armenian blog community really blossomed during the first twenty days in March. Mr. Papyan, whose blog goes by the name of Ditord, states that, “The Armenian blogosphere isn’t homogeneous, many write from abroad and weren’t subject to the restrictions of the state of emergency. There were blogs that were openly in support of the regime which stated from the get go that they didn’t give a hoot about the restrictions and would continue to publish. For example “Pigh” (The elephant), which is the most famous in the Armenian blogs of “Livejournal” was the first to come out with that stance and thus served as a precedent

Tigran Kocharyan (aka Pigh) states that, “What resulted was that my ideas, let’s say, essentially dovetailed with those of the regime. I came out and declared that I wouldn’t abide with the restrictions and I continued to publish the blog, like before.”

The opposition was just as active. For example “bekaisa” not only circulated the announcements from Levon Ter-Pterosyan’s headquarters or interviews given by Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters, but also followed what the foreign press had to say about all of this, publishing and often translating these articles as well.

During the first week of March “You Tube”, a web site to post videos, was shut down in Armenia. However viewers in Armenia were able to get around the block and watch the videos by using either the programs: www.proxyfreeserver.ca or www.anonymouse.org. 

Blogian states that, “After the closing of  “YouTube” it was like Armenia found itself included in the same list as its historic enemy, Turkey. He noted that residents of Armenia always comprised a minority of his readers but that after March 1st they became a majority. 

A video clip soon appeared on the Internet with footage of masked police shooting in the direction of protestors during the night of March 1st, and not up in the air. Artur aPaiyan notes that this was an important development that the police had to respond to. Officials went on Armenia Public TV and attempted to prove that the video footage had been edited.

Artur relates that, “The shutting down of  “YouTube” was a major scandal. I was in England at the time and I saw how the news of the Armenian government closing down the website was being covered. Before that we had read that “YouTube” was being blocked in China, Burma, etc. And then it happened in Armenia. This news had a bigger impact than even the events of March 1st.”

He notes that during the election period “miracles were taking place”, especially on the “A1+” video blog, where much quality footage was being shown. Artur states that, “During the month of February it was included in the “YouTube” top 100 list at least three times. In addition, it was in February that the “A1+” video channel started to operate and became the top “YouTube” site that month in terms of subscribers.” Many also visited Artur’s own video blog, where he downloaded video footage from the “echannel.am” site.

Civilian journalism manifested itself in yet another manner during those days - mailing lists and a network of electronic correspondence. There was a group of activist citizens that would immediately send off information they received via electronic mailing to as many others as possible. This information was distributed through “yahoogroups”, “Facebook” or other social networks. In addition to the mere exchange of information, debate of the issues also took off.

Blogger Shushan Harutyunyan recounts that, “I realized that I just couldn’t sit idly by and wait for the state of emergency to be lifted. I started a group in the “Facebook” community and began to disseminate non-official news that either I had assembled or that I collected from other news agencies or outlets. The group grew to more than 100 in just two weeks. People were even suggesting what news items should be circulated.”

“You would think that there was no censorship or pressures for local bloggers. In any event, “Unzipped” noted some tips on how to avoid the possibility of censorship,” writes  photojournalist and blogger Onnik Krikorian in “Global Voice”, an Internet journal for which he serves as Caucasus Regional Editor.

Nevertheless, many bloggers avoided giving their real names. The supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan started a number of group blogs, that they labeled “samizdat, to remain hidden from the authorities. The most active of these were “Paykar”, “March 1st” and “InfoArmenia”.

During those days, one of the newly created Livejournal blogs topped all records by receiving some 800 comments during the course of one day. This was the blog of Serzh Sargsyan where people could send in questions to be included in a TV interview session with the Prime Minister.

This blog was created and managed by Ruben Muradyan (aka blogger “Uzogh”). Ruben says that, “ The main aim was to deliver questions posed by bloggers to the Prime Minister since they represent an educated, albeit small, segment of the populace.” He states that Serzh Sargsyan requested a list of the most pointed 65 questions for the broadcast. In that list were many questions posed by well-known bloggers. Answers to the other questions were posted on the blog at a later date.

Ruben explains that, “A majority of the questions dealt with the events of March 1st and the domestic political situation. There were also complaints and petitions, comical and ridiculous questions. These were compiled and edited together and the answers were of a somewhat more general nature. The answers were indeed posted on the blog and interestingly enough were no commented on in other blogs.

During the pre-election phase the only website that included a blog was the one of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan. 

A user by the name of Tigran Karapetyan surfaced in the “Facebook” social network and Vazgen Manukyan was registered in the famous Russian language “Odnoklassniki.ru” network. 

The following groups were also created in “Facebook”: “Supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan”, “Those fed-up with Levon Ter-Petrosyan”, “Presidential elections 2008”, “Anti-Levon”, a group supporting Vahan Hovhannisyan. After the elections a group calling itself “Injustice in the Armenian elections that became a reason for civil war” drew some 620 members. The activities of these groups gradually diminished after the elections.

However, parallel with new domestic political developments, new blogs were created. The blog “Zbosank” was created during the days of the ‘political walks’ along Northern Avenue while later on the blog “Matyan” surfaced, covering the issue of political prisoners and their court trials.

Blogs continue to follow the unfolding events of the day. People are more and more turning to the blogs to get information and news not supplied by the traditional media outlets, especially the TV. 

P.S. - A few days ago I went to the trial of someone arrested on March 1st. There were many people in the hallway waiting for the start of the court session. A man of about fifty sitting next to me asked what news outlet was I covering the story for. I told him it was for the Internet, thinking to myself that it wasn’t likely that he’d be interested or that he’d remember the address of the website.

-Is it in one of the blogs? -  He asked, which greatly startled me.
-No, not in the blogs. But do you read the blogs? -  I asked.
-Sure I do. You can’t really believe what the papers write, can you now?
-Do you send your comments to the blogs?
-Nah, I don’t really have the head for that. I just read them. - He answered, rattling off the names of several opposition blogs.