YEREVAN. – The Public Television of Armenia and the press service of the head of government are responsible for the leakage of the off-air footage before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s TV message to the nation. Opposition Prosperous Armenia faction MP Mikayel Melkumyan said this during the traditional briefing in the National Assembly on Monday.

However, according to the politician, there is no need to make a big story out of all this. Melkumyan stressed that this incident once again proves that there is a problem of providing quality work in the public administration system of Armenia. "The level of training of employees and specialists in our country is falling year by year," the MP said, "and we have talked about this issue many times."

To note, the off-air footage of the PM's preparing for his live broadcast appeared on the Internet, and his spokesperson and the state-funded Public Television made mutual accusations in this regard.

Another Prosperous Armenia MP, Naira Zohrabyan, said this was unacceptable. "Whatever the reason, everyone should be held accountable, including the Prime Minister's press service, since they should have overseen the whole process," Zohrabyan concluded.