Businessman, MP, and former president of the “Prosperous Armenia” party Gagik Tsarukyan has called a journalist from “Azatutyun” radio station a “multilovshchik” and a “spy”.

The businessman was telling how he built 2000 stores and provided them for free to people. The journalist said that the shops were built by people. Tsarukyan became angry.

“No, dear boy, I have built them, you are speaking very incorrectly, whoever has sent you here prepared, shame on you…Dear boy, people did the renovations for themselves…you are a “multilovshchik”…you are…for that reason because of you, if 90% of the people today are under the interest, that is your prepared, your sender… I will not answer your question, because you are a prepared spy, who has come here…” said the MP.

According to Tsarukyan, the population of Armenia does not live well because of the work of journalists.

It is becoming a habit in Armenia to blame journalists for negative events. It was this month that after losing to the Romanian national team 0-4 in Yerevan, the former coach of our national team, Varuzhan Sukiasyan, found a connection between the injuries of football players and journalists.

“Why did it happen like this? Perhaps, that bad atmosphere, which reigns in your (journalists), brought it on, for there to be this many injuries in the team,” said Sukiasyan.

But the history of holding journalists accountable for bad management is older.

If in Google you search for the word “lukewarm”, the search engine will immediately suggest as an expression “lukewarm atmosphere.”

“Lukewarm atmosphere” is a proverb in Armenia. It was applied by Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan on March 18, 2013, during a meeting with journalists. On that day, Sargsyan said “lukewarm atmosphere” three times and later addressed the journalists.

“The reason for emigration is that lukewarm atmosphere, in which people don’t see light, don’t see hope. Why? Because for the duration of many years, at least two TV stations, dozens of printed and electronic media were talking only about bad situations, only darkening the picture,” said Serzh Sargsyan.

These situations, when they are blaming us for migration, for football players performing poorly and for sustaining injuries or for an economic crisis, they are proving that we are doing our work not so badly. Tsarukyan, Sukiasyan and Sargsyan are speaking about serious issues: poverty, migration, bad football, hopelessness. And if they are speaking about that, then they know, that they have not been working so well. But there is no need to turn journalists into scapegoats. “It’s not nice.”

Gegham Vardanyan

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.