“Economist” published an article “Authoritarian governments can lock up bloggers. It is harder to outwit them” where there is a section about Armenia. Unfortunately in the passage listed below there is misinformation about governmental restriction on the blog activities during the state of emergency.
I’ve found nice post about blogs activities in Armenia during emergency time from here
Hope,they will change information posted in article on the right one,
thanx for the link to the Economist article!
…and nice blog, by the way!
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You don’t indicate what you consider the minsinformation to be.
However, you’re right. It was a media lawyer that determined blogs to fall within the scope of the state of emergency restrictions and not the government which is how the article reads.
Also, not all were “sharply critical” etc. Anyway, another article on blogging during this period by yours truly is at:
http://www.armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=3149&CID=3024&IID=1192&lng=eng
Dear Onnik
The article in ArmeniaNow completely neglect the fact of the presence LiveJournal community where most of armenian bloggers are registered.
May be the reason of not mentioning such a well-known blogs like ahousekeer,bekaisa,uzogh,kornelij,aramazd,pigh,akunamatata-ser and etc. was that they are posting in Russian language?
Anyway,your article is much more trustful than the “Economist”s one.
Best
Real Armenia
Hi Real Armenia,
I suppose the point of my article is not who wrote what and where or in what language. It was, however, meant to indicate what were some of the most notable aspects of the state of emergency and in particular the information war between radical opposition and government supporters (I certainly didn’t declare one in the majority over the other), the fact that blogs were the main sources of information for that period and the blocking of YouTube as well its use by A1 Plus.
In an interview with Artur Papyan (Observer) the issue of Russian-language blogs and how they mainly were against Ter-Petrossian also came up () and before leaving for the GV Budapest summit I met with Uzogh, Pigh and Akunamata_Ser to discuss the Russian language blogosphere. However, it has been featured and mentioned by myself and Observer on GV although I admit that not nearly enough and this was an oversight.
On the other hand, as Artur (Observer) explained, the English-language blogosphere was most distinct and a broad spectrum of views was offered via GV.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/06/13/georgia-armenian-georgian-blogosphere-assessed/
On the other hand, the style of blogging on LiveJournal (very short posts, single photos and already published articles) has not impressed me so much. That said, there has been more activity now and I’ve given Pigh, Uzogh etc the option of becoming GV authors so as to properly represent the community. Not sure if they’ll take it up, but GV relies on volunteer authors and translators as well as general editors such as myself.
However, I have linked or referred to blogs run by pigh, bekaisa etc in the past. The trouble, however, is not just the need for translation, but also lack of quotable content. I’ve started to look at Pigh’s blog more closely, however.
And I have to be honest, as Caucasus Regional Editor my main concern at present is outreach to Georgian and Azerbaijani bloggers. Even so, yes, I know I now have to find authors willing to compile the occasional digest of Russian-language blog roundups. Anyone interested, contact me via my blog (same is true for Azerbaijan/Georgia).
Hi Onnik
Thanks for more detailed information.
I read LJ bloggers because most of them live in Armenia and more involved in what is going on here. That’s why for me information I am getting from LG is much more trustful than from some living abroad english-writing bloggers.
For the same reason I prefer to read your and ditord’s blogs.
Real Armenia, I think there is one problem that we have. That is, like in actual politics, the whole Armenian blogosphere is polarized with neither necessarily representing the views of the majority.
The problem is that it is a certain type of person who is blogging from inside or outside Armenia and not necessarily those representing the majority population.
Another interest of mine, therefore, would be to try to get tools into the hands of those others as well as non-politicized elements who might be tired of both sides.
At the moment, however, those blogging are either activists, journalists or local civil society workers. I’m wondering about the other voices.
Anyway, let’s see what will be.
Cheers,
Onnik