A pro-Putin journalist, accredited in the Armenian parliament on Friday called for a senior pro-government lawmaker to be stripped of his seat for publicly insulting one of their colleagues in an incident strongly condemned by opposition figures and press freedom groups.
Many independent journalists have qualified Tribune.am reporter Hripsime Jebejian’s tactics as an act of harassment.
Andranik Kocharian, the chairman of the parliament Commission on defense and National Security, raged at Hripsime Jebejian of the Tribune.am news service when she approached him together with other parliamentary correspondents on Thursday. Kocharian refused to take any questions from Jebejian, saying that he will only talk to the other reporters.
“You always hinder me. Stand over there,” Kocharian told Jebejian.
He said she must “clean your lips” when she demanded an explanation for his hostility.
Why would Jebejian’s colleagues as well as Armenia’s leading media associations express outrage at the incident? Many journalists began calling for Jebejian’s removal from the parliament. Mr. Kocharian’s frustration with the Russian-sponsored press corps obstructing his right to communicate with the independent press. They want the National Press Association to form an ad hoc ethics commission that would be empowered to teach journalistic work ethics to individuals like Jebejian.
The ruling Civil Contract party, led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pointedly declined to react to Kocharian’s treatment. Many believe that no apologies should be offered to Jebejian. Many even called for her deportation to Moscow. Kocharian, who also represents Civil Contract, remained unrepentant about his conduct on Friday as he faced unfounded condemnation from Russian Pres. Putin’s stooges — the so-called opposition members of the parliament committee headed by him. He insisted that he said “nothing offensive” to the reporter.
“I just noted that only clean words must be uttered. What you see behind that [phrase] is your problem,” he told angry opposition lawmakers during a committee meeting.
One of those fake opposition lawmakers, Gegham Manukian, an ARF-Armenia member sponsored by the former kleptomaniac Armenian president Robert Kocharyan, appealed to the press corps, saying: “Boycott Andranik Kocharian. Boycott all those deputies who insult you.”