Almost two decades after the Soviet Collapse journalism in Armenia is still in the phase of development. As the Soviet Communism not only controlled but produced the news, there was no need to have a school of journalism. As an example serves the fact that only in the recent eight years the Yerevan State University (the Mother University of Armenia, as they call it) has a Faculty of Journalism. Before, there was a department of journalism in the Philological Faculty. And in that department, as the elder generation of journalists say, were selected those who had nice appearance and would look nice on TV.

Though educational institutions nowadays actively develop curriculum on the basis of which young journalists must be trained, being a journalist in Armenia starts with self-education.

The next point is that the Soviet Regime left a generation that still can hardly, let’s call it ‘understand’ the freedom of speech. First, those are people who are responsible for some problems and do not want that freedom of speech, as it could hurt their reputation, their business and etc. Those are mostly people who have power and still try to use different kinds of censorship.

This problem also exists in other countries, but hand in hand with this problem there is another point that must be considered. A huge group of the simple citizens of Republic of Armenia do not believe that there can be free criticism of officials, of the government and etc.
Sometimes it seems that people are afraid to know as they just got used to the lack of information and do not demand more. I shall bring a recent example. One of the Armenian TVs broadcasted a story about cheap medicine in Alaverdi city. There is a high rate of abnormal birth in Alaverdi. Amny children are born with different strange and rare diseases. So officials tried to help mothers to quit pregnancy a cheaper and less unpleasant way than abortion, offering them special medicine which provokes miscarriage.

The fact that a TV could prepare a story like this, not digging for the reasons of that abnormal birth problem ( it especially irritated ecological reporters, as there is a cooper-metallurgical
industrial plant in Alaverdi that spoils ecology and may be the reason of abnormal children birth).

I did a small survey among those TV viewers who saw the program. And the results showed that they were quite satisfied and happy for the women of Alaverdi who will not has a chance to quit pregnancy a cheaper way… (There are many other examples that I shall not mention here because of the limited space.)

It makes many doubts on the possibility of democracy in a country where people do not want to hear about their problems. So being a journalist in Armenia also demands breaking old stereotypes and forming a demand for information.

These were the two specificities that are very typical for Armenia. The rest is like in other countries: being a journalist is fighting for democracy and trying to be the watchdog of the government, making the Forth Power.

If you are a journalist, it means you will have dig and show the problems that exist but are often tried to be hidden. It is often dangerous and bears threats directed against you and your relatives. It is stress and 24-hour-long creativity, ‘hunt’ for ideas and for sources of information. It is caring and responsibility for every word you say or write. And at last, I think that being a journalism in Armenia means having a heart and doing your job well and working for the public good.