Fifteen heads of print and online media operating in Armenia in a June 2 statement expressed their concerns that of those acting as online media outlets, “a portion are in an uncontrolled area, operating outside of the law and moral norms, and availing, freely and free of charge, from the fruit of the others’ labors.”

The authors of the statement call on bringing those sites within the confines of the law, including the field of copyright, through legislative amendments.

They are urging the tax authorities “to establish control over the activities of online media outlets and to the payment of taxes from advertising revenue.”

And they urge relevant state bodies not to give the journalists of those platforms press accreditation for reporting on their events.

Only one site that was asked to sign the statement refused, but the initiators didn’t want to publish that site’s name.

Mediamax was asked to sign the statement and did so “because impunity has crossed all boundaries.”

The company’s director, Ara Tadevosyan, in conversation with Media.am, described his wording of “impunity” posted on his personal Facebook page as follows: “Indeed, there are many cases when our original stories were used in violation of our rules, and it was impossible to find anyone responsible from the website in question. There are no contact details whatsoever on their site, and finding them through other technical means is sometimes a fruitless endeavor. That is to say, they steal your copyright material, you want to hold them accountable, but you have no chance of finding these people. It’s the same as when such sites spread misinformation or overt provocative reports.”

Of the statement’s initiators, chief editor of Zhoghovurd daily and Armlur.am Taguhi Tovmasyan, in conversation with Media.am, said that what caused the “cup of patience” to overflow was the coverage of the Four-Day War in April. “During those days there were sites that gathered ‘likes’ with several years’ outdated videos and ‘enticing’ headlines about the situation on the border or about victims, which is unacceptable. And this statement is also a wake-up call for them.”

By the way, “the choice of the list of signatories was basically the collective decision of the heads of the media outlets that signed the statement, which, of course, could’ve been more inclusive or the opposite.”

Among the statement’s demands, Tovmasyan considers legislative amendments to be the priority, for which to develop jointly they already have a clear agreement with the government and parliament, “so that the sites also have a permanent address, a publisher or person in charge, a phone number, and most importantly, legal status. We’re planning on organizing discussions in a larger format in the near future.

As for the distinction in the statement between representatives of “media outlets” and those of the “blogosphere,” Tovmasyan explained it this way:

“If a site doesn’t want to adhere to the legal and professional norms necessary for a person carrying out media activities, then state agencies shouldn’t give it accreditation as a media outlet. Everyone is free to receive and create information, to express and disseminate their opinion, but the person carrying out media activities should differ from the blogosphere. This is our approach.”

Has there been a precedent of any state body accrediting the correspondent of such a “media outlet”? Tadevosyan said he doesn’t know, though he added that in the future, they might raise the issue of reviewing the current accreditation process and simply introducing press cards.

“Many people may get the impression that with this, we signatories of the statement are trying to censor and so on. But I think, in general, there’s no such threat because in all civilized countries that arena is subject to some regulation, and they don’t have the impunity that exists here [in Armenia], when anyone for the least amount can register a domain name, and, I don’t know, for $10 or $12 buy the cheapest hosting outside of Armenia’s borders, then copy-paste material from various sources and call itself a media outlet.”

Ruzanna Khachatrian