sources and government narrative when covering the war . State actions , particularly the framing “ Haghtelu enq ”, were mainly directed towards impacting public behavior and creating a rally-round-the-flag effect in the country . The state actions during the war were intended to get increased public support for the government and particularly the PM . The research question of the project is “ What was the media framing of the official statements of the Armenian Prime Minister throughout the 44-day Artsakh war ?” The study proposes two hypotheses : there was rally-round-the-flag during all 45 days of the war , and no media outlet ever questioned the Prime Minister ’ s narrative framed as ‘ Haghtelu enq ’ ( We will win !); The support for the Prime Minister ’ s narrative about the war in the media heavily depended on the political economy ( including ownership type ) of the selected media outlets .
Limitations to Freedom of Speech Under Martial Law
This section provides an interpretation of the Martial Law of the Republic of Armenia . As noted in the introduction , Armenia declared martial law on the first day of the war . It is important to note that a part of Article 7 of the martial law implies “ limitation of press and mass-media freedom by means of preliminary censorship ( Irtek – Legal Information Center ). Moreover , on October 8 th , the Armenian government made several amendments in the martial law , according to which :
1 . it was prohibited to criticize , deny , or question actions of the state and local self-government bodies aimed at protecting state security and the enforcement of the legal regime of martial law ,
2 . it was prohibited to question or spread propaganda against the defense capacity and security of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh ,
3 . the Police of the Republic of Armenia was authorized to take the necessary measures to ensure that the above-described reports and publications were taken down as well as to temporarily confiscate printing equipment , radio broadcasters , amplifiers , and duplicators ( Artsakh spotlight Karabakh ).
Methodology
As noted in the introduction , the research question of the current project is “ What was the media framing of the official statements of the Armenian Prime Minister throughout the war ?” To answer this question , the paper conducts a
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