We observe a significant rise of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in Armenia: Ioannisyan at the OSCE

On October 8, during the OSCE/ODIHR Human Dimension Conference held in Warsaw, Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator of the NGO “Union of Informed Citizens,” presented the main challenges facing democracy in Armenia and the dangers of external informational influence.

Ioannisyan noted that anti-democratic propaganda and media manipulation are becoming serious threats to Armenia’s information environment – often organized through networks controlled by Russia.

The full text of Daniel Ioannisyan’s speech is provided below.

“It is perhaps not unknown to anyone in this hall that anti-democratic propaganda and media manipulations are becoming a serious challenge in almost all OSCE member states. Armenia is not an exception in this regard, where some local forces, in cooperation with Russia, are trying to devalue the idea of democracy in every possible way.

Given the low level of media literacy and shortage of independent media, these forces succeed in achieving a certain result, however, fortunately, so far, to a limited degree.

The shortage of independent media also leads to another issue. Large segments of society no longer value the media and are sometimes even hostile to all journalists, including those that generate independent and quality content.

At the same time, we observe a significant rise of Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference in Armenia. We observe that a number of troll factories, including ones controlled by the Wagner military group, are engaged in Armenia, while operating from Russia.

We can see new tools, new methods and new actors engaging in hybrid attacks on Armenia, where information operations are a key component.

Regarding narratives, they are trying to undermine democracy as a value, targeting democratic reforms, presenting Armenia’s relations with the US and EU as a source of threats and many problems, targeting Armenia’s path of gaining independence from Russia and, of course, trying to undermine peace and possibility of peace with Azerbaijan.

The last one, by the way, is a very active narrative line recently. As you know, Russia’s main tool of leverage on Armenia and Azerbaijan is the conflict.

At the same time, the Armenian government is failing with establishing functional and efficient public communication, as well as creating a good environment for independent media and media’s financial transparency.

In the end, because some Azerbaijani colleagues have mentioned terrible stories of journalists being victims of armed conflicts, I would like to suggest a comprehensive or, even an international investigation on the targeting of a group of journalists in the city of Martuni on October 1, 2020. Let me remind you that a full package of 40 “GRAD” multiple-launchrocket system shells hit a group of international journalists in the center of a civilian city, where there was no military infrastructure within a radius of several kilometers.

I think that a transparent investigation of that incident could be a good tool for confidence building”.