Outrage after Yerevan’s Mayor calls local media a ‘big garbage dump’

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan has caused controversy in Armenia after calling local media ‘a big garbage dump’ following the presentation of a joint investigation by local media outlet CivilNet and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) into his alleged corruption.

The comment was made during a debate on Factor TV between ex-Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan and Avinyan on Wednesday over the increasing price of public transport in Armenia’s capital city.

During the debate, Marutyan showed a copy of the joint investigation by CivilNet and the OCCRP published in mid-November, which suggested that Avinyan’s family-run company benefited from a project overseen by Avinyan, who was serving as Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister at the time.

According to the article, ‘during Avinyan’s tenure as Deputy Prime Minister from 2018 to 2021, nine beneficiaries of an agricultural program under Avinyan’s purview subcontracted work out to Irrigate LLC, a company Avinyan founded and which was owned by his brother at the time, according to government records’.

The article noted that Avinyan, his father, who was named as company director, as well as his brother, did not respond to requests for comment.

During the debate on Wednesday, Avinyan stated that he had filed a lawsuit against CivilNet shortly after the article was published, and that he had urged his father to follow suit.

He then went on to accuse the media outlet of being ‘very beloved’ by Marutyan.

‘I apologise, but the media in our country has become one big garbage dump. They say whatever they want with impunity’, Avinyan said.

Following a remark by the debate’s moderator to not target the media, Avinyan clarified that his statement referred to ‘some [media outlets], not all’.

Avinyan’s statement caused outrage online, with journalists and media organisation representatives condemning the mayor’s behaviour.

Experts also noted that before filing a lawsuit, Avinyan could have appealed to the Media Ethics Observatory, a media self-regulation initiative tasked with examining the compliance of the member media outlets' actions and publications within the provisions of the Code adopted by the Observatory.

Shushan Doydoyan, head of the Freedom of Information Centre, wrote on Facebook on Thursday that Avinyan, as an official holding a high public position, is obliged to be tolerant of criticism directed at him.

‘Moreover, he is obliged to be open and accountable to the public and provide well-founded and clear answers to the questions raised, rather than rushing to take revenge on journalists who speak out about his shortcomings and omissions’, Doydoyan said.

In a subsequent editorial, Karen Harutyunyan, CivilNet’s Editor-in-chief, thanked Avinyan for several actions, including that his statement and lawsuit ‘have highlighted the crucial role of independent media and investigative journalism in holding officials accountable’.

Harutyunyan underscored that CivilNet’s collaboration with the OCCRP ‘speaks to the quality and credibility of our investigation’.

‘As for Avinyan’s “garbage dump” reference — well, that truly falls under the mayor’s jurisdiction. We hope he succeeds in solving one of Yerevan’s biggest problems — the issue of legal and illegal garbage landfills in his city’, Harutyunyan wrote.