During the sessions held in Yerevan within the scope of the 8^th Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists (organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora under the title “Armenian Statehood: Axis of Unity”), there were interesting speeches and practical proposals and discussions that will surely serve as a basis for organizing the future forums. Hayern Aysor presents excerpts from the speeches that were given during the forum.

Anna Karapeptyan

Editor of Orer news website of the Czech Republic

Pressing issues related to information security challenges

Today we are living in an unprecedented information war. Whether it likes it or not, Armenia is in the hottest spot of the war, but it overtly lacks a clearly developed strategy and is rarely able to give adequate responses. Unfortunately, most of the responses aren’t addressed to other countries.

Every day, Azerbaijani media outlets disseminate misinformation that they develop very well and in Armenian as well. As for Armenia, Armenian media outlets are not coordinated. However, the information war is as dangerous as the war on the battlefield. It is a known fact that whoever has information can rule the world, but now, it is better to say that whoever provides information more quickly becomes the person who has the situation under his control.

On behalf of the Orer periodical publishing in the Czech Republic, I suggest establishing an Armenian-European multimedia news and analytical portal in Prague, the center of Europe. The portal will have a policy on the media, meaning it will have a state-oriented policy. It will be a center with which the political and economic elites and experts of the world will want to consult in order to help solve the problems facing Armenia. It is necessary to work hard to make sure Armenian sources prevail during searches for information about Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh on Google. I am glad to mention that news from Armenpress and PanArmenian.Net has been appearing on the first page of Google just recently.

Another important thing is that we need to work with already pro-Armenian journalists working for foreign media outlets. Robert Fisk, who publishes news about the Armenian Genocide every year, wrote about the so-called “Khojalu massacres” since he wasn’t aware of the truth and had worked with Azerbaijani forces. There are so many events taking place in the world that it would simply be naïve to sit and wait for foreign presses to address Armenia and the Armenians. We Armenians need to make sure there is news about Armenia every day. Let us be active. Let us ask questions and make foreign politicians and analysts concerned so that they make pro-Armenian statements.