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28.02.2008

ON THE ISSUES OF THE RA INFORMATION POLICY

   

Gagik Ter-Harutyunyan

One of the primary characteristic traits of up-to-date global processes is the formation of a world information-communication overall field. As a result, so called “technical protection” of the boarders of national-state information field1 faces serious difficulties, in spite of the attempts2 made in some countries. Thus, complete information security (IS) of a state and public may be solely conditioned by the potential of its own information resources (mental, spiritual and technical) and the systemized declination the information filed formed through those resources.

The issues of a joint information field

One of the main problems of Armenia’s (RA, NKR and maybe Javakhq) Information security is formation of a joint information field. It is known that the present information flow mainly concerns to the capital Yerevan and almost doesn’t elucidate the situation in Artsakh, Javakhq and the RA regions. Perhaps it is the high time to restore the institute of so called correspondents, which in its time afforded an opportunity for the population of Armenia to be aware of events in this or that region. In this field a special importance should be attached to the issue of the content of the joint information field: it is not a secret that there are many misdeeds here endangering the rights of the society and a person to be informed: in the context of the problem of possessing information should be also observed the purposefully processing of information received from open sources and the formation of hierarchic system of providing this information to the state bodies3.

Formation of a joint information field is also urgent in the context of security of world spread Armenians. However, the solution of the problem (one should only mention that the Armenians are spread in more then a hundred countries, and it is not even known the exact number of communities exceeding the number of several hundred) is much more difficult. The work carried out in this direction of course supposes other countries which have Diaspora, especially the research of the experience of Jews. We also think that that the issue of forming joint information field of all Armenians may become realistic only after creation of RA IS conception and system.

Problems connected with infogen threats

It is considered that the sources of internal infogen (generated from information) threats of Armenia and Armenians are a few Azerbaijani and Turkish mass media. Such an approach is sure to be quite simple. However, even the obviously instigating information flow spread by the above mentioned mass media doesn’t undergo expert analysis, their technological and methodological peculiarities and similarities are nor revealed. At that, it is impossible to discover the real centers of infogen threats, to understand their objectives and strategy. It is obvious that in that field one should use the acceptable mechanisms of acquiring knowledge (getting education in the foreign centers, invitation of experts etc.) and make a good use of them in practice.

On this occasion it should be mentioned that the information fields and problems worth attention are quite various and by time they propagate by acceleration. One should only mention the problem of “the third screen” (after the screens of the TV set and computer) which came into existence thanks to wide spreading of mobile phones: During the Arabic-Israeli confrontation of 2006 SMS messages were bilaterally widely used as an important means of information-psychological influence. At that, our expert community almost doesn’t touch upon the problems of counteracting infogen threats in the Republic’s technical-electronic systems4.

The legal norms in power in the internal information field5 also need to be made more precise: information actions are sometimes presented as a mere expression of democracy and the right of freedom of speech. At that, in many cases they are of manipulation character by their content and form and are directed against our national interests. It is worth noticing that such information-psychological actions are subject to legal persecution in a number of western, so called countries of “developed democracy.” On this occasion let’s mention that during these presidential elections one of the candidates voiced the issues of NKR conflict settlement as well as political thesis and approaches relating to Azerbaijan and Turkey which are to get legal estimation in the status of temporary ceasefire in case of out country.

Theoretical issues

Of course the theoretical fields of IS are very important. One should only mention that today there aren’t any unequivocal definition of information actions and wars accepted by everybody. As a result in our society and, particularly, in different circles of administrative bodies these conceptions are often perceived not adequately and are interpreted in their own way. In the first stage of IS formation it will probably be better to make use of its professional definitions given by such outstanding authors as Tomas Ronny, Sergey Griniayev. Such an approach is sure to suppose a creation of a special terminological dictionary.

In parallel with all these one should always remember that the expert community adheres to the thesis that in IS field, more then in other fields, one should avoid of blindly adapting the experience of other countries as the information problems are directly connected with the spiritual background of a person and the geographic position of the country.

Some conclusions

In our society separate individuals are engaged in IS problems. Some of them are real professionals and basing on their work principals carry out everyday information-propagandistic work and do their best to oppose information attacks. However, the activity of those individuals has situational and tactical character. As a result, there are cases when the absence of a general approach to this or that political issue destroys all the efforts of these individuals.

According to us, for working out a political culture in the first phase should be created an expert commission which will take account of both the information resources we have and the problems of IS field. The results produced from the work of commission may make a basis for the political authorities to make steps in the direction of shaping IS system infrastructures. In particular it supposes creation of structures under the umbrella of the state. In this context let’s mention that the creation of the documents of the RA national security strategy and the RA military doctrine are mainly conditioned by the fact of existence of the Defense Ministry and its analytical structures. That’s to say, it is difficult to imagine any advancement in IS field without any professional structures even in the direction of economy.

 

1In the narration following this word combination is supposed the field created by means of mass media, internet and other sources.

2Here one should especially take into consideration the experience of China which imposed an embargo against the authorities violating the society’s moral norms.

3 Let’s mention that there was such a system (called ATLAS) in the USSR by means of which state and party elite (so called nomenclature) got quite objective information on international political developments. Of course, the information field has undergone essential changes during the last 10 years; however, the Soviet experience is exemplary up till now.

4Apropos of this it is worth mentioning that according to mass media, in January of the current year the US president has signed two directives on IS technical field, according to which the American special services acquire a right to initiate the attack against the centers threatening the US security.

5Let’s mention that the norms corresponding to international rights are not mentioned in the information plane. At that, the problem is urgent and is continuously discussed in different international instances. In this sense, Armenia, as a subject of information wars, should make an attempt to have active participation. At the same time, in the practical plane the main stress should be put on the formation of internal legal field in the information sphere.


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