Quote of the Day
RFE/RL: Armenian law-enforcement authorities are doing their best to stop periodical attacks on local journalists mostly critical of the government, a senior police official claimed on Friday. Colonel Hovannes Tamamian, head of the Directorate General of Criminal Investigations at the national police service, also said he believes the authorities should go as far to allow Armenian reporters to carry guns.
“I believe that an educated and clever person must have the right to possess a weapon,” he said, answering a question from a female journalist. “Let a criminal know that a girl like you has a gun that she can take out and fire from. I am not against that.”
Tamamian was speaking at a news conference held less than two days after the beating of a prominent television journalist, the second such incident in just over a week. Both Nver Mnatsakanian of the private Shant TV and Argishti Kivirian, editor of the Armenia Today news agency, were attacked by unknown assailants just outside their Yerevan homes. Kivirian suffered particularly severe injuries and was hospitalized as a result.
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6 comments:
Right. Arm journalists. Great idea. Sure, it was suggested in Russia, but there journalists really do get killed.
What Armenia needs is less guns, and less violence. Not more.
Sorry, the guy is a retard. Instead, investigate all attacks properly and make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Or maybe he's trying to signal to the rest of us that actually, that's beyond his control...
Not sure about Russia (may be?), but you described exactly what I was thinking while posting this and using the Armenian language title. Armenian police at its bizarre best.
This has been really irritating me since I read it this morning, so here are excerpts from a similar plan that was floated a few years ago in the Philippines--yet another country one can compare Armenia to, I guess:
http://gsd9000.tripod.com/id23.html
May 25, 2006
THE Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) yesterday frowned over the government’s plan to allow journalists to arm themselves in the wake of the series of killings of media practitioners in the country. ‘‘It’s an admission that government can no longer protect the lives of Filipinos,’’ said COPC president Uriel Quilinguing.
[…]
For Quilinguing and other media leaders in the city, arming journalists would not deter the commission of the crime. ‘‘Can a journalist fight two or five assassins? How can you fight back when you’re outnumbered? Besides, there are so many ways to kill,’’ he said. ‘‘Many journalists drink a lot,’’ said Quilinguing, adding that he feared armed journalists can become easily provoked. But he said it would be up to any citizen, including journalists, to arm himself. ‘‘It’s an individual prerogative.’’
In a statement, NUJP said Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales’ confirmation that government is considering arming journalists ‘‘proves once and for all that the media community and the citizenry in general can no longer trust this administration to fulfill its sworn mandate to protect and defend us.’’
[…]
Well in an ex-soviet state Armenia,police knows everything..Who attacks who..who is doing what..
So I think the latest crimes were the message to journalists..State message...
(carry gun discussion is just invented to confuse people)
Good article on this from Hetq--especially considering that the police are trumpeting the attack on Hetq's editor Edik Baghdasaryan as being "solved" when it is nowhere close to being that: http://hetq.am/en/media/tamamyan-3/
http://tsiranyan.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/police_armenia/
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