Opinion: NSS should deal with certain medial outlets (video)
Parallel to the development of information industry, numerous problems arouse in the sphere of mass media. Particularly, there has been an increase in the cases of disinformation, says President of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan. He proposes to create a system which will oblige its members –media outlets -to observe certain rules of ethics. “Naturally, many would not like to join the initiative, therefore we need to inform consumers of the media that joined the system for people to know which of them can be trusted or not,” Mr Navasardyan said. Mass media must follow certain rules, especially when there is tension and a state of emergency, says Tigran Kocharyan, an expert in information security. “The media that disseminated information which has led to or may lead to bloodshed, killing of a soldier or a resident of a border village, will be ‘handed’ to the National Security Service,” he said. “Even professional media can make mistakes but strict measures against them could cause great damage to the media field,” says Seda Muradyan, Head of Public Journalism Club NGO. “I do not approve of strong interventions and regulations, because we live in a difficult country where interventions can have unpredictable consequences,” she added. Problems also exist in social networks where anonymous users leave offensive comments. “A man flew from Moscow to Nizhny Tagil to kill another man who had offended him via odnoklassniki.ru social network. If you know that someone can fly Moscow to Nizhny Tagil to settle accounts with you, you will be more cautious. This thesis is more practical than all types of regulations and legislative initiatives,” Mr Kocharyan said. “Instead of following the experience of other countries we had better establish common rules, taking into account local peculiarities,” the expert said in conclusion.
