UJA slams Armenian parliament speaker’s disrespectful behavior towards reporter

The Armenian Union of Journalists (UJA) on Tuesday issued a statement blasting National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan for his disrespectful behavior towards journalist Vahe Makaryan. The full statement is provided below.

“On October 31, another incident occurred between Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) Alen Simonyan and a journalist covering the work of the NA. This time, the target of Alen Simonyan’s unruly behavior was Vahe Makaryan, a journalist for the Mediahub.am news website, who said that he has covered the work of the National Assembly for more than 10 years, and none of the head of the NA has ever shown such attitude towards any journalist.

According to the journalist, from the very beginning of their conversation, the NA Speaker targeted both him and the media outlet where he works, and then the argument heated up to the point that the journalist feared that Alen Simonyan would use violence against him, especially since the latter’s bodyguards held his hands. However, according to the journalist, it was them who resolved the situation.

Alen Simonyan, certainly, presented his version of what happened, but fortunately, in this century of technological development, if desired, it is possible to find out what really happened.

There are cameras installed in the corridors of the National Assembly, and there should also be cameras in the area where the incident occurred. Therefore, if the National Assembly staff or the State Security Service provides the footage recorded by the National Assembly cameras without editing, the situation will be more understandable. The National Assembly Speaker himself should be interested in ensuring that the footage recorded by the cameras is provided to all interested parties without editing.

Alen Simonyan has wide experience of creating conflict situations with journalists working in the National Assembly and dragging them out of the NA building by their arms on his orders, and in all those cases, he has never been held accountable for his behavior by his teammates or the party. Alen Simonyan was also not held accountable when he spat on a citizen.

Let us recall that in April 2023, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, spat in the face of a citizen in the Cascade area. The incident between Alen Simonyan and citizen Karen Mkrtchyan occurred after the citizen, upon seeing Alen Simonyan walking with security guards, shouted, “Traitor, trator”. Alen Simonyan instructed the bodyguards to grab the citizen by the hands and, approaching him, spat in the citizen’s face.

Alen Simonyan was also not held accountable in September 2022, when he ordered state security officers in the corridors of the National Assembly to remove journalists Ani Gevorgyan and Suzy Badoyan from the building. On Alen Simonyan’s orders, state security officers dragged Ani Gevorgyan out of the building, and he was not held accountable for that shameful behavior.

The Union of Journalists of Armenia strongly condemns the behavior of NA Speaker Alen Simonyan, urges the board of the ruling Civil Contract party to investigate Alen Simonyan’s behavior and rein him in.

We invite the attention of law enforcement agencies, diplomatic services accredited in the Republic of Armenia, and international journalistic organizations to this incident.

We demand that the relevant authorities publish the unedited video of the incident between Alen Simonyan and journalist Vahe Makaryan.

Until the video is published, we have no reason to distrust the journalist’s version of the incident. At the same time, we call on journalists working in the Parliament and other state bodies to strictly adhere to the rules of journalistic ethics and not give in to provocations, no matter how difficult it may sometimes be.”

In a separate statement, a group of Armenian media organizations also denounced the incident, urging the Civil Contract faction to set up a parliamentary ethics committee to investigate it.

“As a matter of fact, only journalists are held to account following such conflicts, having their accreditation revoked. Whereas lawmakers showing aggressive and disrespectful behavior in gross violation of parliamentary ethics go unpunished,” the statement said.

The media organizations urged the National Assembly leadership to immediately reinstate Vahe Makaryan’s parliamentary accreditation.