Free Media Always Fight

The following article originally appeared on Medium.

Independent media after the Velvet Revolution in Armenia

As a young person choosing a career in Armenia, Nouneh Sarkissian knew she wanted to make a difference.

Sarkissian began her search for a meaningful career as a student at Yerevan State University in the early 1980s, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union. Her interests took her from archeology to academia before realizing that her desire for adventure coupled with her natural talent for writing made her especially suitable for journalism. It would be a challenge, though. Her university didn’t even have a journalism school.

After contemplating out loud one day to her husband about the possibility of becoming a broadcast journalist, she made up her mind to pursue it. He dismissed it as a possibility, so she resolved to make it happen. Within six months she was working at the only television station in the country, the State TV and Radio of Armenia, as a correspondent and editor.

Fast forward almost 35 years and several television stations later, and Sarkissian is now head of the Media Initiatives Center, a media support organization in Armenia and USAID partner that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Once a branch of the U.S.-based organization Internews, the center became independent in 2004 and supports freedom of expression and the protection of journalists’ rights in Armenia.

With the motto “Information is Power for Change, ” the Media Initiatives Center has positioned itself as a leader within Armenia, but also throughout the Europe and Eurasia region as it works to expand the reach of independent reporting.

The organization has pioneered innovative approaches to media literacy education, including a game that allows players to put themselves in the shoes of journalists, and a traveling museum that chronicles the history of media in covering critical events, like the devastating 1988 Spitak earthquake.

Now, the center has created a multimedia project capturing the role journalists and citizens played leading up to and during the public demonstrations last year, sometimes referred to as the Velvet Revolution.

The Revolution Won’t Be Televised

It has been one year since weeks of peaceful street protests throughout It the country forced the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan and displaced a regime characterized by corruption and cronyism.

The events ushered Nikol Pashinyan, a former journalist and head of the small opposition party Civil Contract, into the post of interim prime minister. Livestream broadcasts enabled the protest leaders to speak unfiltered and directly to the population, while citizens witnessed the protests as they happened.

In the first few days of the protests, television stations tied to oligarchs and government elites showed popular movies and soap operas as hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets, revealing how out of touch authorities were with reality. At the same time, the country’s vibrant social media helped increase pressure on the ruling regime, serving to coalesce young people around the movement.

At the height of the revolution, over one-third of Armenians were streaming, commenting, and coordinating via Facebook. Their photos and videos held authorities accountable and likely prevented them from cracking down harshly, as they had in the past.

Sarkissian notes, “Last year was very exciting and difficult. We changed the course of life and political stagnation. We [opposition politicians, civil society, young people, and journalists] changed the apathy. Even with all the existing problems of the media, journalists played a huge role in these changes. They were heroes of the Velvet Revolution.”

The Beyond

Each of the independent journalists and citizen activists who took to the streets in Yerevan demonstrated the power of a free press and an engaged civil society to hold government officials to account.

Decades of U.S. support for independent media in Armenia helped keep the space open for dialogue and reporting, particularly about corruption — the central organizing issue for the Velvet Revolution.

Although the revolution is over, the work is really just beginning. The media sector in Armenia historically has been undermined by political pressure, harassment, and a distorted advertising market favoring outlets with positive coverage of the former ruling party. These challenges won’t change overnight, but USAID will continue to support champions for press freedom in the country.

By working with independent media organizations like Media Initiatives Center, USAID improves their professional capacity to produce fact-based, quality content and their ability to serve as effective media watchdogs. These programs also help the public become more critical consumers of news and information — ultimately increasing demand for transparent, independently sourced information.

As the Media Initiatives Center and its partners prepare to celebrate another World Press Freedom Day on May 3, what does Sarkissian believe the media needs to keep progress moving forward in Armenia?

“Media need the same as all society — freedom, independence, prosperity, dignity, transparency. We need brave people, who are ready to be leaders of responsible journalism, who believe in professional values and believe that they can make people and society better.”

She cautions, however, that freedoms in general, including for the press, are always fragile. “

You should never give up [on fighting] to protect it, to secure it, ” she says. “It always fights.” And Sarkissian will be right along side it.