Finally, Article 50 (3) of the Law on Electronic Communications sets forth an obligation on operators and ISPs to assist law enforcement investigators in conducting surveillance measures.
ONI Testing Results
In 2007 and 2008, the ONI ran tests on the first-tier ISPs in the country: Arminco,
WEB, and Netsys. During Armenia’s state-of-emergency, ONI monitored the media
and Internet blackout in the country and concluded that pervasive filtering was occurring. The ONI detected a large number of blocked Web sites, including regional sites
providing information on ethnic and religious freedom groups, Armenian opposition
sites, Russian opposition sites and youth movements, personal blogs, an Armenian
Internet portal, and a political and cultural site about Nagorno-Karabakh. A number
of international and regional (mainly Russian) media sites, e-mail services, and search
engines were also filtered. In addition, leading Armenian online media were intentionally blocked. Few pornographic, LGBTQ, and drug-related sites were blocked.
Conclusion
Armenia has struggled through political instability, regional conflict, and widespread
poverty and unemployment. The new president has pledged to carry out reforms that
would decrease corruption, improve living standards, and enhance foreign confidence
in the economic development of the country. The crackdown on the media and the
Internet in sensitive times, however, reveals that the government is likely to resort to
such measures in order to stifle public criticism.
Notes
1. Miniwatts Marketing Group, ‘‘Internet World Statistics: Armenia,’’ 2009, http://www
.internetworldstats.com/asia/am.htm.
2. Ministry of Transport and Communications, http://www.mtc.am.
3. David Sandukhchyan, ‘‘Armenia,’’ Political Intelligence Internews, December, 2006, http://ec
.europa.eu/information_society/activities/internationalrel/docs/pi_study_rus_ukr_arm_azerb_bel
_geor_kaz_mold/4_armenia.pdf.
4. Deliverable Report No.1: Inception Report (Tasks 1 through 4), ‘‘Design of Universal Services
Fund for the Telecommunication Sector in Armenia,’’ Prepared for World Bank Project WB 230–
695/07.
5. International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ‘‘Internet Indicators: Subscribers, Users, and
Broadband Subscribers,’’ 2008, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Reporting/ShowReportFrame.aspx
?ReportName=/WTI/InformationTechnologyPublic&RP_intYear=2008&RP_intLanguageID=1.
144
Armenia
ONI Testing Results
In 2007 and 2008, the ONI ran tests on the first-tier ISPs in the country: Arminco,
WEB, and Netsys. During Armenia’s state-of-emergency, ONI monitored the media
and Internet blackout in the country and concluded that pervasive filtering was occurring. The ONI detected a large number of blocked Web sites, including regional sites
providing information on ethnic and religious freedom groups, Armenian opposition
sites, Russian opposition sites and youth movements, personal blogs, an Armenian
Internet portal, and a political and cultural site about Nagorno-Karabakh. A number
of international and regional (mainly Russian) media sites, e-mail services, and search
engines were also filtered. In addition, leading Armenian online media were intentionally blocked. Few pornographic, LGBTQ, and drug-related sites were blocked.
Conclusion
Armenia has struggled through political instability, regional conflict, and widespread
poverty and unemployment. The new president has pledged to carry out reforms that
would decrease corruption, improve living standards, and enhance foreign confidence
in the economic development of the country. The crackdown on the media and the
Internet in sensitive times, however, reveals that the government is likely to resort to
such measures in order to stifle public criticism.
Notes
1. Miniwatts Marketing Group, ‘‘Internet World Statistics: Armenia,’’ 2009, http://www
.internetworldstats.com/asia/am.htm.
2. Ministry of Transport and Communications, http://www.mtc.am.
3. David Sandukhchyan, ‘‘Armenia,’’ Political Intelligence Internews, December, 2006, http://ec
.europa.eu/information_society/activities/internationalrel/docs/pi_study_rus_ukr_arm_azerb_bel
_geor_kaz_mold/4_armenia.pdf.
4. Deliverable Report No.1: Inception Report (Tasks 1 through 4), ‘‘Design of Universal Services
Fund for the Telecommunication Sector in Armenia,’’ Prepared for World Bank Project WB 230–
695/07.
5. International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ‘‘Internet Indicators: Subscribers, Users, and
Broadband Subscribers,’’ 2008, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Reporting/ShowReportFrame.aspx
?ReportName=/WTI/InformationTechnologyPublic&RP_intYear=2008&RP_intLanguageID=1.
144
Armenia