I\u2019m always looking for information about Armenia. I mainly read the news that my friends and acquaintances send me.<\/p>\n
Generally, I try to follow not the media of the ruling authorities or government, but Civilnet\u2019s, Azatutyun\u2019s [RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenia service] or Hetq\u2019s stories. I also read our diaspora\u2019s newspapers, where there isn\u2019t always news about Armenia.<\/p>\n
It seems now that if we don\u2019t take an interest in social or alternative media news, we generally won\u2019t understand what\u2019s happening in Armenia. The news reaches the diaspora either in part or unilaterally. Or, unfortunately, both at once.<\/p>\n
One of Armenian media\u2019s obvious issues is that you have to be prepared to scrutinize, compare, draw conclusions, and analyze. Otherwise, you won\u2019t understand what really happened; what is right, what is not. In fact, this is very difficult, since you have to allocate sufficient time to the task and understand that everything today changes very quickly.<\/p>\n
I want us not to forget that through social media a lot of stories can also turn into gossip. And every Armenian who follows Armenia\u2019s reality must of course admit that what\u2019s important is not just getting the news quickly, but also trusting the quality of that news.<\/p>\n
Of course, a primary issue all over the world now is news verification, distinguishing lies from the truth, seeing the use of manipulation. The international media today is in a difficult situation.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s attention is usually directed at incidents happening in large countries (those are the stories that are read and shared). In Armenia\u2019s case, very little information leaves the country\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n
For example, almost no one in the world learned that such serious incidents involving Sasna Dzre<\/a>r happened in Armenia. And during those days when I was arrested then released, the news reached a few major organizations. For example, Human Rights Watch, where I sent a letter. Ultimately, I am a Canadian citizen, and news of my arrest, and consequently, also of the Sasna Dzrer incidents and the barbaric behavior of the police made it to the Washington Post<\/em> and Le Monde<\/em>.<\/p>\n And this way, the information to some extent was disseminated and referenced. I felt that not only was the world unaware of what was happening in Armenia, but also the diaspora didn\u2019t have enough information because the diasporan media didn\u2019t desire or wish, or wasn\u2019t concerned to dig up more information. I don\u2019t know, perhaps they also didn\u2019t want to rouse diasporan Armenians. Or they hadn\u2019t understood how to convey such inexplicable actions.<\/p>\n But in any case, they should have informed [the public] of what was happening in Armenia. I think the silence of the media those days was also the result of censorship.<\/p>\n But despite that, it\u2019s clear to all of us that the world is not interested in Armenia. Gathering information about Armenia is tantamount to a waste of time. Armenia doesn\u2019t take up space in the pages of the American or European press, let\u2019s not kid ourselves.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big responsibility, as well as a personal decision, for me, Atom Egoyan, and Serj Tankian not only to follow events in Armenia, but also to support as much as we can. We feel our connection to Armenia at various levels. And not only with our participation in cultural events, but also in a broader sense, by being concerned about Armenia\u2019s future.<\/p>\n I believe we have the right to talk about the gross injustice and the rights of local Armenians. For this reason, we\u2019re bringing our participation<\/a> to the April 2 elections as observers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear how much people in Armenia love Serj Tankian, but that\u2019s not just because of his art, but because for years he\u2019s been fighting for both recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the protection of human rights.<\/p>\n Atom, Serj and I wanted to participate in such important elections for Armenia as observers. Understandably, we can\u2019t raise our voices without the people\u2019s participation, but we can be useful with our stance and our support.<\/p>\n And if you want change, you yourselves have to decide when, in what manner, and by what means to achieve this goal. We just support you from the rear, and we say: we stand for your rights.<\/p>\n If we witness any violations, we will be able to more freely express them. Of course, we\u2019re not naive, but the day when Transparency International [Anticorruption Center] announces the results, the people will decide how the elections were: fair? transparent? free? or does the voice of protest need to be expressed?<\/p>\n We\u2019re not citizens of Armenia and we can\u2019t vote for different political parties, but we want every citizen to choose knowingly.<\/p>\n Personally, I can only urge one thing: go vote, and vote for the political group that is fresh, young, and has perspectives.<\/p>\n Arsin\u00e9e Khanjian I\u2019m always looking for information about Armenia. I mainly read the news that my friends and acquaintances send me. Generally, I try to follow not the media of the ruling authorities or government, but Civilnet\u2019s, Azatutyun\u2019s [RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenia service] or Hetq\u2019s stories. I also read our diaspora\u2019s newspapers, where there isn\u2019t always news about Armenia. Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vox-populi-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862","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=7862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nActress<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"