SUMMARY
Disinformation erodes trust between members of the public and the government. In addressing this threat, Armenia pursued an “information integrity” approach that uses open government values to push back against false narratives. The government and civil society worked together to develop “The Concept of the Struggle Against Disinformation 2024-2026,” a governmental decree to strengthen the country’s information ecosystem.
Disinformation has been a constant threat in the Republic of Armenia, where social media serves as the primary news source for two-thirds of the population. Digital platforms have largely replaced official news channels, which often fail to deliver accurate and timely information.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, and ongoing political turbulence have underscored the urgent need for stronger regulations on government communication, particularly during emergencies. In 2021, the situation surrounding disinformation became heightened. Faced with strained relations in Europe and the ongoing security threats and border tension, Armenia experienced an environment ripe for false claims and fake news to spread.
The danger of false narratives
In 2021, Armenia faced a surge of disinformation about COVID-19, national security, and its relationship with Europe. In particular, false narratives about COVID-19 undermined the country’s public health efforts to fight the pandemic by eroding trust between the government and members of the public.
Photo credit: Polina Tankilevitch via Pexels
How fake news can spread
Conflicts can also fuel the spread of false claims and fake news. In the case of Armenia, the insecurity caused by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war created an environment where disinformation and misinformation could thrive.
Pictured: Mountains in the Nagorno-Karabakh region (Credit: Vaghinak Vardanyan via Unsplash)
The Spread of Disinformation
False allegations included that the government was using the pandemic to control citizens, that elected officials were acting against national interests, and the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse was a ploy to promote homosexuality and pedophilia in the country.
Lilya Afrikyan, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) contact for Armenia and a Prime Minister’s Office representative, highlighted that disinformation was undermining the country’s public health efforts to fight the pandemic. Despite the challenge that lay ahead, Afrikyan notes that the government quickly recognized punitive measures against those responsible were not the solution. This realization sparked their interest in finding a different approach.
Collaboration through Civil Society Involvement
In 2023, the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA), a civil society organization campaigning for access to information mobilized civil society organizations, such as the Media Initiative Center, to develop proposals to tackle the problem. Led and organized by FOICA, the group invited partners and implemented a consultation process, with the goal of producing a set of solutions.
FOICA engaged with the government over its ideas, engaging the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, a key partner in implementing OGP in the country. This collaboration was key to finding a way forward—namely, a national plan to coordinate efforts to combat disinformation.
The Concept of the Struggle Against Disinformation
Working together, civil society and the government developed “The Concept of the Struggle Against Disinformation 2024-2026,” a governmental decree signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in December 2023. The Concept acknowledges how disinformation fractures trust between citizens and the state and presents a roadmap for positive action through three pillars to rebuild trust.
Pillar 1: State Institutions
Strengthen state institutions, promoting greater government transparency and public access to information. This includes improving government strategic communications to connect the public to more reliable information and enabling the state to readily counter false information.
Photo credit: Government of Armenia
Pillar 2: Information Integrity
Ensure information integrity by getting the private sector and state regulatory bodies to work together.
Photo credit: Sam McGhee via Unsplash
Pillar 3: Civic Education Programs
Propose national civic education programs to better prepare citizens to “differentiate disinformation, develop analytical and critical attitudes towards information.”
Photo Credit: Beko via Wikimedia
The Concept builds on broader “information integrity approaches” promoted by the United Nations, OGP, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Its guidance emphasizes the value of a pluralistic free media by offering citizens a range of sources to judge the integrity of news. This approach also focuses on how citizen’s trust in government should be built through the promotion of open government values such as transparency, civic participation, accountability, and inclusion.
The Realities of Creating a Disinformation-Free Armenia
Improvements for Year Two
FOICA and the government agree that progress toward the Concept’s goals has been slow. But both parties expect rapid progress in the second year of the Concept’s two-year roadmap, and agree that there are successes and ways to improve implementation. Instances include making the Concept more accessible to diverse stakeholders to support a more rapid adoption of the program. For example, Afrikyan explains that a working group in government has been set up to track delivery.
“We are supporting the government to build up their strategic communication tools and resources[…], because without having communication tools, policies, procedures and resources in place, it will be hard to realize [the goals in the Concept],” Shushan Doydoyan, FOICA.
Achievements of the Concept
The Concept is a significant landmark. It establishes the importance of information integrity in Armenia for the first time. It links information integrity with trust in government, state transparency, accessibility, inclusion, and public accountability. In creating the Concept, Doydoyan explains that a key element in making this approach work was finding the right people in government and demonstrating its tangible benefits. Perhaps most importantly, the Concept has helped underline how these goals—focused as they are on governance—are of much wider significance to Armenian society and the economy.
Armenia’s next general election is expected to be held in 2026, the year when the Concept will expire. Implementing government transparency and media literacy as key elements of good governance would represent hard-won and resilient outcomes, irrespective of whether a future government chooses to continue with a similar program.
Learn more about this commitment from Liana Doydoyan, Co-Founder and Board member of FOICA.
Since 2011, Armenia has been an OGP member. The landmark Concept supported their 2022-2024 OGP action plan, which contains their overall commitment to increasing transparency.