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BEIRUT: At 4:30 p.m. each day, many Lebanese Armenians switch their televisions to FutureNews or OTV to watch coverage of local, regional and international news in Armenian.
While community members can choose from among dozens of Arabic-language television stations, many viewres told The Daily Star that they miss having a television channel dedicated to broadcasting Armenian-language programs.
Paradise station, a local radio station that was based in Burj Hammoud, established the Armenian Television Network during the Civil War, but the station stopped broadcasting after its administration failed to obtain a proper license in the mid-1990s.
While it's not a substitute, the nearly half-hour daily newscasts every afternoon provide viewers the opportunity to hear all the news, including local Lebanese affairs, in Armenian.
Lorig Saboundjian, a reporter and anchor at OTV, told The Daily Star that the daily newscasts signalled that local media outlets were beginning to realizr the value and market for broadcasting news in Armenian.
"After years of being off television screens ... people started to realize that, just like Arabic, Armenian is also an important language that needs to be used on TV," Saboundjian said.
According to Saboundjian, the Armenian news team at OTV needs to bring on more Armenian-language reporters because there are more events to be covered every day.
"Not only should the team become bigger, I believe the daily 20-minute broadcast is regularly failing to cover all important issues," she said, lamenting a lack of opportunities to study journalism in Armenian.
Saboundjian said that she would have studied journalism in Armenian if it had been available at the university she attended.
"Although I wanted to study Armenian journalism, the major wasn't available anywhere in Lebanon," said Saboundjian, who studied Social Work at Haigazian University instead.
"This is the main reason why there is a shortage in Armenian [-language] media personnel today and most probably this is one of the obstacles to lauching an Armenian [-language] TV channel," Saboundjian added.
"Whoever studies journalism in English, Arabic or French ... they will probably prefer to work in English, Arabic or a French media outlet."
Saboundjian, 35, first started her career in journalism as a part-time presenter for Beirut-based Radio Van.
"All I did back then was simply present news after it was prepared by the editor," she said.
Before joining OTV in 2009, Saboundjian held a number of different positions.
"In 2004, I was offered a job by an Armenia-based TV station that wanted to open an office in Beirut," she said. "As a correspondent for the YergirMedia, I prepared all Lebanon-related documentaries and news broadcasts and sent them to Armenia."
A rash of security incidents in Lebanon after 2004 helped Saboundjian further establish herself in the profession. "I was the first journalist to send video coverage of [former Prime Minister Rafik] Hariri's assassination in 2005 to the Armenian capital of Yerevan," Saboundjian said.
"My work at YergirMedia was a great experience because sending political news from Lebanon to Armenia required a great deal of work and extra effort," she said, noting how she needed to explain to Armenian viewers in Armenia the sometimes-convoluted background of Lebanese politics.
It works the other way as well.
"Although we have a team of Armenian journalists at OTV ... we constantly need to explain to non-Armenians at the studio about specific news and its importance during a certain news broadcast," she said.
"While thousands of Lebanese Armenians held a demonstration in Beirut's Martyrs Square against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit, Prime Minister Saad Hariri was giving a speech in Tripoli," said Saboundjian, providing one example.
"The decision about which event to broadcast was influenced by the Armenian desk, which explained to the administration the importance of the demonstration," she added.
Saboundjian's colleague at Future News, Shiraz Djeredjian, said an interest in politics led him to journalism.
A graduate of Biology from the American University of Beirut, Djeredjian, 25, said that his ability to speak Armenian helped launch his career.
"I was offered a reporter's job at Future News four years ago ... and I had to go through a four-month journalism training led by a group of journalists at the studio," said Djeredjian.
While Saboundjian cited a lack of academic opportunities, Djeredjian said that another burden hindering the expansion of Armenian-language journalism is the political divide among Lebanese Armenians.
"Although Future News and OTV are the only channels that currently have daily Armenian news broadcasts, Lebanese Armenians prefer one of them over the other based on their political affiliations," said Djeredjian.
Future News is affiliated with the Future Movement while OTV is connected to Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement.
"The political rivalry between the two TV channels is negative ... it has led most Armenian politicians and figures to boycott one of the two stations, refusing to go on Future News or OTV," he said.
Shiraz, who presents the daily Armenian broadcast on Future News said that he and four other reporters staff the Armenian desk, producing local Lebanese news, Armenian news and international news.
When asked what it takes to be a competent journalist in the Armenian language, Djeredjian said that both strong journalism skills and a sound knowledge of Armenian are equally important. "It's not enough to be a good journalist ... one needs to have an advanced knowledge of Armenian as well."
Djeredjian said he was hopeful that Armenian-language journalism in Lebanon would move forward and expand because of the experience many Armenian-language journalists have gained in newspapers and other media outlets.
Besides being a full-time reporter at Future News, Djeredjian presents morning news on the Armenian Radio Sevan station.
Djeredjian also appears live on two Armenian talk shows on the Yerevan-based ShantTV that connect Beirut via satellite broadcast with studios in Yerevan, Moscow and Los Angeles.
While politics may influence which newscast viewers watch, many in the Lebanese Armenian community emphasize the importance of broadcasting in Armenian.
"I don't mind which channel I'm watching ... watching news in Armenian even once a day is a great thing," Nareg Hejinian told The Daily Star.
Hejinian expressed dismay at not having a separate Lebanese Armenian television channel that broadcasts in Armenian. "We should have had it by now ... not having it is a big mistake," said Hejinian.
Another viewer agreed, saying that the news broadcasts that are currently offered are too brief.
"Of course it is important to watch Armenian news and watch it every day ... but it needs to be longer and provide more details," commented Armen Seferian, as he waited for the broadcast to begin.
SOURCE: Armenian-language reporting gains steam - January 05, 2012 02:52 AM By Van Meguerditchian
| The Daily Star |
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia
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