Pashinian was jeered and insulted by local residents blaming him for grave consequences of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh as he toured regional towns in April 2021. In one of those towns, Agarak, he was hounded by dozens of furious men who swore at him, branded him a “traitor” and demanded that he leave their community.
Pashinian described the protests as a “violation of the law,” ordering Armenia’s police and National Security Service to respond to them “in a tough manner.” At least 23 people, including eight local government officials, were arrested in the following days. Most of them were freed by courts shortly afterwards.
Pashinian criticized those court orders in the Armenian parliament in March this year. A few days later, investigators arrested a former senior executive of a Syunik-based mining company on charges of organizing the “hooligan” protests. He is currently under house arrest.
As part of the same probe, the Investigative Committee also indicted late last week journalist Anush Mirzoyan, who worked at the regional Zangezur TV channel and provided, together with her cameraman, live coverage of Pashinian’s disrupted 2021 trip to Syunik. The footage of the protests was retransmitted or used otherwise by multiple media outlets, including RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Mirzoyan was charged with assisting in what the Investigative Committee calls “hooliganism” and “disturbances.” The law-enforcement agency refused at the weekend to elaborate on the accusations strongly denied by the journalist.
According to Mirzoyan, the investigators claim that her coverage of the anti-Pashinian protests prompted more local residents to take to the streets and join them.
“A bad precedent is being set,” the journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It means that if I, you or any other media organization cover a demonstration, we will not know what will happen next.”
Earlier this month, the Armenian Ministry of Justice drafted legislation that would force online media to remove content deemed slanderous by authorities. The ministry circulated it two days before the chief of Pashinian’s staff, Arayik Harutiunian, warned media outlets to “quickly self-regulate” or face government measures which they would consider a “restriction of freedom of speech.”