{"id":9594,"date":"2018-04-13T21:06:44","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T21:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/blocked-youtube-news-outlets\/"},"modified":"2018-04-13T21:06:44","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T21:06:44","slug":"blocked-youtube-news-outlets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/newsroom\/2018\/04\/13\/9594\/","title":{"rendered":"Blocked YouTube News Outlets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Factor.am\u2019s YouTube page<\/a> was blocked for about 24 hours, then restored. It was blocked on April 11, during the evening without any warning.<\/p>\n

The website\u2019s editor-in-chief Arevik Sahakyan says, that \u201cnumerous violations\u201d were cited as a cause for disconnecting the YouTube Channel. The editor says that it is not now clear as to which violations they were being punished for.  <\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to restore the broadcast, we had to get into contact with international journalistic organizations, then it became possible to restore our activities on YouTube,\u201d says Arevik Sahakyan.<\/p>\n

In order to reestablish relations with YouTube, Factor.am was assisted by international journalistic organizations. Armenian human rights organizations have issued a special statement in order to help the news outlet, and noted that Factor.am\u2019s unobstructed activity is crucial during the active political period of the Prime Minister\u2019s election and the political campaigns which are taking place against said elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese organizations had noted, that we provide impartial information, maintaining journalistic ethical norms,\u201d said the editor.<\/p>\n

Recently, as Arevik points out, they have covered the oppositional campaigns more than any other news outlet, and it\u2019s surprising as to why their page was blocked hence during this period of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp till now, we have had correspondence with YouTube. We have received warning messages. For example, recently, when we were covering the 30th anniversary of the Karabakh Movement, we received a letter where YouTube warned us that the music used in the video violated copyright. We responded to the email, saying that we were working live at the site of a rally and they accepted our reasoning,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Another Armenian news site, Armlur.am\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a> was blocked on April 11. The reason for being blocked had been the same as in the case of Factor.am.<\/p>\n

The website\u2019s editor-in-chief Taguhi Tovmasyan says that they have been deprived from their audience of 40 thousand followers for the third day already, but that they haven\u2019t lost hope and are waiting for the results of their correspondence with YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have protect ourselves from technical and other issues. Aside from our main channel, we also have two pages, through which we are now sharing our content. We simply do not have the blocked page\u2019s subscription number, and the archive of approximately 68 thousand videos,\u201d notes the editor.<\/p>\n

It is also incomprehensible for her that the YouTube page would be blocked during such a time when the opposition is holding protests in a country just before elections.<\/p>\n

The founder of Caramel advertising agency, which is specialized in the internet platform, Arsen Sultanyan, says that there have been many cases when, without warning, a YouTube page has been blocked.<\/p>\n

For example, recently, the social network has, without proper notice, blocked the account of a well known program. Even after a long correspondence, it was not possible to reactivate the page.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reasons can be very different, the most common being a copyright infringement. In such cases, they do not explain the situation using reasons, they simply send you the link to their general rules,\u201d he said, adding that further emails may remain unanswered by the social network.<\/p>\n

The problem, according to Sultanyan, is that our country is small. Google, which owns YouTube, does not have representation in Armenia, and there is no opportunity for direct dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of not being reactivated, the news agency can open a new account, using the same logo, and the same name. The only thing that changes in this case would be the YouTube address, the URL,\u201d explains Sultanyan.<\/p>\n

In such cases, the news agency suffers financial loss, losing its followers and their advertising opportunity. They are forced to resume their activities from a new page, and perhaps more carefully.<\/p>\n

Gayane Asryan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Factor.am\u2019s YouTube page was blocked for about 24 hours, then restored. It was blocked on April 11, during the evening without any warning. The website\u2019s editor-in-chief Arevik Sahakyan says, that \u201cnumerous violations\u201d were cited as a cause for disconnecting the YouTube Channel. The editor says that it is not now clear as to which violations Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsroom","author_posts-gayane-asryan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9594","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=9594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}