My pick of newly/recently launched Armenian online news outlets

Recently, there has been surge in numbers of Armenian online news outlets. However, many newly launched resources are simply copying each other, at times almost indistinguishable, whether by look or content, and carrying the same news stories from site to site.

For now, the most successful is Tert.am that quickly became one of the main and popular sources of Armenia related news. I remember, up until a year or so ago, when I wanted to visit one site to know what’s going on in Armenia, the choice was obvious - A1+. Now it’s Tert.am for me. Let’s see if they’ll keep it up.

Another interesting project which I’d recommend you to check out is the Armenian Version. With the writer and journalist Lusine Vayachyan & co on board, the ArmVersion is fresh, and regularly posts challenging stories tackling sensitive and relatively taboo subjects.

Still, there is need for independent journalism from Armenia that - as The Independent would put it - “free from party-political ties and proprietorial influence”. Hetq.am is still OKish, but sadly it shifted more towards providing daily news (like dozen others) rather than investigative journalism which it was famous for.

Epress.am - new online outlet by independent journalists’ network in Armenia

Last week my attention grabbed this newly launched project - epress.am by the Independent Journalists’ Network. As I learned, the former editors of Tert.am are behind this project. It is available in three languages - Armenian, Russian and English. For now, they have a small team of journalists and translators working out of a rented apartment in central Yerevan.

Says Adrineh, the editor of the English-language version of the site: “The aim is to have news that's not pro-government and not pro-opposition. It's not about "who's side you're on" — it's about reporting the news, just the facts, objectively and without any other motives. The Independent Journalists' Network is the NGO and they/we are able to do the work we do because of funding from the Norwegian government. There's no other funding at the moment.”

Upcoming plans for epress.am include launching a Turkish-language version of the site and blogs section, both pending funding.

What I want to see on epress.am is independent and investigative journalism, with challenging stories, stories that I won’t necessarily find anywhere else.