A few weeks ago a distance debate started between Armen Harutiunyan, the defender of human rights of Armenia and Alexan Harutiunyan, the president of the board of the public television and radio regarding the coverage of the presidential election on the Public Television.
Harutiunyan stated a few weeks ago that the Public Television does not fulfill its duty and does not guarantee parity and an unbiased coverage of the presidential election. “Very often the impression is that the Public TV supports one of the poles and comments on the words and statements of politicians. However, its main function should be coverage and provision of objective information,” said the Ombudsman. Alexan Harutiunyan in his turn responded to him through one of the newspaper that “. Perhaps he is the other pole, isn’t he? Don’t get too excited, it’s OK, boy. The hard times will pass soon.” Let’s remind that the imbalance of coverage mostly related to presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The coverage of the campaign of all the other candidates was more or less balanced. Let’s remember that local and international organizations also adverted to this issue, which had been monitoring the TV coverage during the campaign period. The debate continued on February 27 at the Friday Club which hosted Armen Harutiunyan. The reporters asked his opinion on the parity and impartiality of the post-electoral coverage on the Public Television. He said that he had started to notice certain balance of coverage on part of the Public TV. Let’s note that during the official campaign the Haylur would film Ter-Petrosyan’s rallies and broadcast it every day on TV in a negative manner. However in the post-electoral period it almost doesn’t speak of the rallies, which host thousands of people or at least adverts to those on surface. It maximum shows the opinion of a few people, who complain that the protesters make noise at night and disturb their peace. However, the H1 carefully adverts to the statements of all the other candidates. After the response of Alexan Harutyunyan it seems that the Ombudsman drastically changed his opinion. The journalists were surprised by his answer and he was surprised by the reaction of the journalists. Armen Harutiunyan said, “Although few but some footages are shown, and since they used to show nothing at all, the progress is evident, and besides criticizing the shortcomings the progress should also be reported.” According to the ombudsman, the post election period and the created situation proves that the country has not yet liberated from the totalitarian system and its principles. He advised to stop a while and to listen to those who we did not want to. “It is the only case to solve this problem,” said Harutyunyan. Ombudsman notified that society’s main problem is not being tolerant and strong will is demanded to meet and overcome today’s problems. He added that our society has been separated into two groups; the first one longs to take part in the meetings but the other one expresses unwillingness. “We should do everything that one part of the society did not feel as if aliened,” he said. By the way, yesterday Harutyunyan said that he hadn’t received any compliant letters so far from any citizen regarding the fact that the rally disturbs their peace. The Ombudsman of the Republic of Armenia, Armen Haroutiunyan, denied today rumors that opposition activists, detained on suspicion of illegal arms possession and calls for violent change of power, are being tortured by law enforcement bodies representatives. The Human Rights Defender said that his office received a number of letters claiming this but the investigation and the evidence given by the detained proved the inconsistence of such claims. Mr. Haroutiunyan also informed the reporters that his office receives many letters claiming abuse of human rights by the authorities, but many are not grounded and those grounded are sent to prosecutors for further investigation. Referring to the ongoing political turmoil in the Republic, the Ombudsman stated that democracy is anchored on cooperation, dialogue and tolerance. He said no segment of Armenians must feel defeated. He also called upon the political leaders to stop for a moment and listen to each other. "No political group or an individual can claim having the absolute truth," he said. The Ombudsman said that his employees participated in almost all the rallies. Thus he has first hand information. The quick response group of the Ombudsman also took part in the simultaneous rallies of Ter-Petrosyan and Serzh Sargsyan and hasn’t noticed any attempts of threatening people to join rallies. “At least so far I haven’t received any concrete complaint from anyone implying information that he/she was made to join Sargsyan’s rally,” said Harutyunyan. They also haven’t noticed how the supporters of Sargsyan walked from the Republic Square rally to the Liberty Square to join Ter-Petrosyan’s rally. Harutyunyan spoke about the rumors of electoral violations, cases of electoral bribery. “This time the complaints were no more than during the Parliamentary elections 2007. We don’t react on such rumors. We react on concrete complaints. The Ombudsman’s office hasn’t received any written complaint. But one thing I can say for sure. This is a serious issue for our society and we should all fight against electoral bribery,” said the Ombudsman.