A recent Civilnet Special Video Report entitled, “Major Crackdown on Armenia’s Opposition
Over Alleged Coup Plot,” sadly falls far short of CivilNet’s often-stated and intended goal of
providing “honest and impartial journalism.”
A media outlet of CivilNet’s reputation should have taken greater care in its efforts to provide
objective coverage of such an important issue. Instead, it chose to intensify an already polarized
and inflammatory media cycle while the Armenian government continues its increasingly violent
incursions against the 1700 year old Armenian church, its clergy, and Armenian citizens voicing
support for Armenian national security protections and Armenian values.
The following are a few particularly glaring points in the CivilNet video with which countless
Armenians, globally, took umbrage.
CivilNet’s video thumbnail for this piece—the first image seen and remembered by viewers and
mere “scrollers” alike, dramatically reads, “COUP PLOT IN ARMENIA,” prominently featuring a
less-than-flattering image of an Archbishop being forcibly detained by masked, Armenian state
security forces.
The text and choice of image, clearly, frame Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a popular and
beloved clergyman, as a sinister co-conspirator in potentially violent political intrigue.
And, in so doing, Civilnet has already handed-down a “GUILTY VERDICT” with their accusatory,
cropped photo, and the words, “COUP PLOT IN ARMENIA”—not alleged coup, not possible
coup, not dreamt-up-by-corrupt-officials, but a coup plot, (seemingly) in fact.
In a word, this highly cultivated scene leads audiences to conclude that the clergyman pictured
and associated others are guilty of planning a violent coup.
While the accompanying audio to the report uses the term “alleged,” between bouts of specific
descriptions of yet-to-be-proven (or yet to have even happened…) conspiracies, the mere
intonation of the word (“alleged”) casts aspersions of guilt in the highest.
The implication of guilt harnessed in this CivilNet reportage, supersedes any other notion,
particularly, the most likely, by all counts, that Archbishop Galstanyan and others implicated are
the victims of trumped-up charges by a government carrying out unjust persecutions, while
desperately clinging to waning power.
Furthermore, although the reporter at one point claims they are reading from a NSS’s (National
Security Services) statement, it becomes unclear whether the reporter is still actually reading
from an official statement or taking editorial liberties, particularly when they allege “to achieve
their criminal goals of seizing power, Galstanyan and other members planned to commit acts of
terror…”
To the average listener, this and other select sound bites could be easily interpreted as
CivilNet’s own editorializing of the issues and is a potentially grossly irresponsible accusation. If
it is the NSS’s account, that should be repeated and made abundantly clear.
If CivilNet’s goal is to truly provide unbiased information, analyses, and insights, it should, as a
media outlet of some repute, take greater care and make greater efforts to avoid character
assassination, disseminating partial truths (or outright fictions), and inadvertently parroting
increasingly undemocratic Armenian state propaganda, further inflaming this government’s
unwarranted and violent crackdown on free speech, religion, and its own citizens desperately
seeking to prevent further capitulation.
