In an interview with the state-funded radio aired on February 1, Pashinian again took aim at a 1990 declaration of independence cited in a preamble to the Armenian constitution. He claimed that Armenia “will never have peace” with Azerbaijan as long as there is such reference. Accordingly, Pashinian defended his plans to try to enact a new constitution that would presumably make no mention of the declaration.
The Public Radio director, Garegin Khumarian took issue with Pashinian’s comments in an op-ed article published on its website. The premier, he said, told citizens to “stop being Armenians,” rather than “get stronger,” in the face of existential threats from Azerbaijan. This policy will not prevent Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia, wrote Khumarian. He also accused Pashinian’s government of failing to rebuild the Armenian army since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia’s Council of Public Broadcaster, which appoints the heads of state television and radio, accused Khumarian of abusing his powers to express his personal view on the radio website in an “arbitrary” and “unchallenged” way. The council appointed by Pashinian pledged to look into his article’s conformity with “ethical and legal norms.”
It went on to ask Armenia’s Media Ethics Monitoring Body to pass judgment on the matter. The independent body formed by several dozen media outlets consists of a dozen current and former journalists and press freedom activists.
In a statement released this week, the watchdog concluded that Khumarian did not violate any ethnical rules or abuse his position and acted in line with “the legal requirement of pluralism” set for the public broadcaster. The council’s reaction to his article was therefore “not commensurate with the situation,” it said.
The council chairman, Ara Shirinian, on Friday declined to comment on the watchdog’s conclusion. He implied that the supervisory body does not plan to take further action against Khumarian.
For his part, Khumarian thanked the Media Ethics Monitoring Body for supporting him. “This once again shows that our profession, our community must go down the path of self-regulation,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Khumarian, who has run Armenia’s oldest and biggest radio station since 2019, may still lose his job despite being exonerated by the media watchdog. His five-year contract expires next month, meaning that the Council of Public Broadcaster will have to again choose a Public Radio chief on a supposedly competitive basis. Khumarian said earlier this month that he will participate in the job contest because he is backed by the overwhelming majority of the broadcaster’s 340 or so employees.