Khumarian’s five-year contract with the radio expired in April two months after he publicly disagreed with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s comments on the conflict with Azerbaijan. Pashinian, he said, told citizens to “stop being Armenians,” rather than “get stronger,” in the face of existential threats from Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s Council of Public Broadcaster, which appoints the heads of state television and radio, accused Khumarian of expressing his personal view on the Public Radio website in an “arbitrary” and “unchallenged” way. Accordingly, it did not exercise a legal option of extending Khumarian’s contract by two years and decided instead to choose a new Public Radio chief on a supposedly competitive basis.
The council on Monday declared veteran RFE/RL journalist Armen Koloyan the winner of the job contest. Khumarian as well as some Armenian media outlets predicted this outcome earlier in July, saying the council will execute a government order to install a new director deemed loyal to Pashinian.
Earlier this week, Khumarian said that in 2021 he rejected the council’s “indecent proposal” to censor Public Radio’s news coverage and make personnel changes in the country’s oldest broadcaster.
“That document had zero impact on the work of Public Radio and nobody suffered from its existence,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday. “The radio’s editorial policy remained unchanged.”
Armenia - Garegin Khumarian.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the supervisory body formed by Pashinian acknowledged that it had objected to that policy in a letter to Khumarian sent by its chairman, Ara Shirinian. It said the objections related to the radio’s coverage of government policies and political developments as well as first-hand news reports from towns and villages close to Armenia’s volatile border with Azerbaijan. It said that even if those reports were objective, they spread “panic” among local residents and undermined political stability in the country.
“It is unfortunate that we learned about the ‘pressure’ and the ‘indecent proposal’ made by the Council three years late, only after Garegin Khumarian was not reelected as director of Public Radio,” added the statement.
Responding to this jibe, Khumarian said that he did not publicize the council chairman’s letter earlier because he was not sure he could prove its authenticity.
Shortly after naming Khumarian’s successor, the council pulled off the air one of Public Radio’s main political talk shows that has for years been hosted by journalist Gevorg Melikian. It claimed that Melikian has systematically violated journalistic ethics by interrupting his guests and arguing with them during the programs.
The council similarly accused Khumarian of violating ethnical rules and abusing his position when it responded to his criticism of Pashinian in February. An independent media watchdog comprising current and former journalists and press freedom activists found no such violations.