YEREVAN. – The editors kicked off the Armenian Press Day with humor. 

During Wednesday’s press conference, former newspaper editor Vasak Darbinyan noted that someone had reminded him that October 16 is also Anesthesiologists’ Day.

In his view, the role of the press is just slightly different than the role of the anesthesiologists and, perhaps, that why their days have coincided.   

“The role of the press is to put the society to sleep, to abate the vigilance. Otherwise, why have the days coincided?” Darbinyan stated.

On her part, Hraparak daily Editor-in-Chief Armine Ohanyan disagreed with Darbinyan’s comparison. In her words, journalists are the sanitary engineers of the society; they are the cleaners of the “trash” and the “dirt.”

She stressed that the press plays an important and indispensable role. Not only has it become established in Armenia, but it also has assumed the functions of the institutions that protect the public interest.

In turn Ashot Aghababyan, Chief Editor of Hayatsk weekly and Nyut.am online newspaper, told the “joke of the day:” 

“What is the similarity between a fly and a politician? Both can be ‘killed with a newspaper.”

Aghababyan stressed that three things have become established in Armenia in the last twenty years: the army, corruption, and the press.

“Say what you will, [but] the press has become established. But, in this respect, the best times were the years [between] 1990 and [19]96,” he added.      

Ashot Aghababyan also expressed a view that today’s journalists in Armenia lack information.