On March 16, Artur Sargsyan, known as the \u201cbread bringer,\u201d passed away after undergoing major surgery.<\/p>\n
Last July, when the armed group Sasna Dzrer seized a Yerevan police building, Artur Sargsyan took bread to the members of the group, risking his life, breaking through the police cordon, from where bullets escorted his car.<\/p>\n
The \u201cbread bringer\u201d was arrested in July with the others, released in December, but again detained in February. He declared an indefinite hunger strike in protest. He was released in March only after 27 MPs intervened.<\/p>\n
News of Sargsyan\u2019s death took over Facebook. Pain, anger, sorrow, and several attempts at cold judgment. Calls for streets to be named after him, even renaming Republic Square; accusations that the authorities killed him, if not directly then at least by twice imprisoning a sick man, whose guilt remained incomprehensible to a large segment of the public.<\/p>\n
\nNaturally, it was interesting how the TV stations would deliver the news.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
ATV generally did not cover Sargsyan\u2019s death. ArmNews likewise didn\u2019t provide any information, counter to the word \u201cnews\u201d in its name (except for its 9 pm broadcast, which is allotted to the news of another TV company, A1+).<\/p>\n
Armenia\u2019s Public TV, Kentron TV, Armenia TV, AR TV, and H3 didn\u2019t include the news of Sargsyan\u2019s death in their opening bulletins highlighting news of general interest, but they did briefly mention the news, stressing that the surgeon didn\u2019t consider Sargsyan\u2019s death to be the result of his hunger strike. <\/p>\n
H3 dedicated the first 10 minutes to the campaign meetings of another Artur (Artur Baghdasaryan) and his newly created party \u2014 that is, considering it 10 times more important than news that shocked the public, and than, say, the head of state Serzh Sargsyan\u2019s visit to Moscow.<\/p>\n
Kentron TV, the control of which is linked to businessman, MP Gagik Tsarukyan, at the end of the news conveyed Tsarukyan\u2019s deep condolences to the relatives of the deceased and declared that the Tsarukyan Alliance\u2019s campaign would be put on hold till the end of the next day. Why Tsarukyan so highly esteemed Sargsyan that he took the major step of suspending his campaign was in no way explained. In any case, you won\u2019t find Tsarukyan\u2019s. name in the list of 27 MPs whose efforts released the \u201cbread bringer\u201d only days earlier. <\/p>\n
Four TV companies \u2014 H2, Yerkir Media, Shant TV, and Ararat TV \u2014 included Sargsyan\u2019s death in its main news bulletin, the first two even began their broadcasts with this news.<\/p>\n
What was bothering the TV companies, the majority of which also kept silent on the march dedicated to the \u201cbread bringer\u201d from Freedom Square to the Ministry of Justice building, with its fairly edgy slogans? If 25 years later, anyone watches the March 16, 2017 news broadcasts, they won\u2019t realize the public resonance of this news, or the need to cover the incident.<\/p>\n
\nThe TV stations didn\u2019t deliver the main story, that Artur Sargsyan, the \u201cbread bringer,\u201d had become a symbol for many people. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
During the seizure of the police compound, there were thousands-strong demonstrations and marches in Yerevan and other cities around the country in support of Sasna Dzrer. When it became known that the group\u2019s members were deprived of bread and water, many urged and demanded the government to show magnanimity and humanity, but it was Artur Sargsyan who decided he had to do something and took food to the group\u2019s members. <\/p>\n
Between his two arrests, the \u201cbread bringer\u201d gave an interview to Hetq<\/a>, where he evaluated his deed very modestly, but he urged people to help all those in need and so fight the authorities, which are not fulfilling their duties.<\/p>\n
That is to say, if it\u2019s not possible to change government through lawful means, it must be replaced\u2026 at least to the extent of your abilities.<\/p>\n
There were so many posts on social media on March 16 that some even complained about the abundance. But this abundance is easy to explain: people are more reserved if they know that their mood and public concern will be properly (through experts, commentators, polls or through more comprehensive information) reflected in the media \u2014 first and foremost, on the most popular and mass of all media, television.<\/p>\n
Vahram Martirosyan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On March 16, Artur Sargsyan, known as the \u201cbread bringer,\u201d passed away after undergoing major surgery. Last July, when the armed group Sasna Dzrer seized a Yerevan police building, Artur Sargsyan took bread to the members of the group, risking his life, breaking through the police cordon, from where bullets escorted his car. The \u201cbread Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","author_posts-vahram-martirosyan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}