Mediamart (Media Battle) is a digital game developed by the Media Initiatives Center [also responsible for this site] for journalism enthusiasts. Independent Armenia\u2019s media already has more than a quarter of a century of history, but media coverage of corruption (the fight against corruption) is more like a game in terms of effectiveness.<\/p>\n
\nCase of the \u201cDevoured Mazut\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In Soviet Armenia, people didn\u2019t attempt protest actions for social reasons: doing so was futile and dangerous. They would be dismissed from their jobs or be given a \u201cpolitical lining,\u201d as they used to say during the Stalin years, and be imprisoned.<\/p>\n
In this sense, not much changed also in the post-Soviet period. Since 1988, mass rallies would take place, but the demands weren\u2019t social, but political.<\/p>\n
One article (Yerkir<\/em> daily, December 28, 1993) testifies that the situation was the same also during the \u201cdark and cold years<\/a>.\u201d Everyone had been suffering already for two years from the 22-hour absence of electricity a day, but it wasn\u2019t locals but the \u201cforeign students who\u2019ve come to Armenia\u201d who publicly complained outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the demand \u201cWe\u2019re dying, light.\u201d<\/p>\n
(The writer himself simultaneously complains that in accordance with US aid procedure, single mothers received assistance, but mothers with husbands did not. Probably his family belonged in the latter category. But the journalist doesn\u2019t even make approximate calculations whether the funds provided by the Americans would cover the cost of assisting complete families, which would probably be tantamount to Armenia\u2019s budget that year.)<\/p>\n