Deputy FM of Armenia commented on information on "black lists" of  disliked media

ArmInfo.Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan denies having a so-called "blacklist of unsavory media" in the department he represents, not only using 

special sanctions in the form of blocking access to information, but 

also developing some conspiracies from the Foreign Ministry 

spokesman.

On July 27, after the government session, Shavarsh Kocharyan assured 

the journalists that there are no issues that would hang in the air 

and would not be commented on by the Armenian Foreign Ministry. "It's 

another matter that in many cases, the answers were distorted, as a 

result of which the practice of writing a response to questions was 

introduced," he said.

Note that recently a scandal broke out in social networks due to the 

fact that in a closed Facebook group of press secretaries of Armenian 

state agencies, the RA MFA Spokesman Tigran Balayan expressed 

dissatisfaction with the work of the "Graparak" newspaper and one of 

his correspondents, asking his colleagues how to proceed with A 

wayward journalist. In response, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman for 

the Defense Ministry, advised to include this media, as well as 

another Zhokhovard newspaper, on the blacklist. And the press 

secretary of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Nana Gndoyan even 

suggested the method of "effective intimidation of the media". 

According to her, in order to stay away from the obsessive journalist 

for a long time, one should refer to the provision of the law on 

freedom of information, which grants the relevant department the 

right to provide information within 30 days. Head of the Public 

Relations Department of the National Assembly of Armenia Arsen 

Babayan and Advisor to the Governor of Gegharkunik Zohrab Yeganyan 

also expressed their complaints about the work of the media and 

journalists.