Hetq.am Hacked?

It would appear that this weekend, someone hacked into the web site of Hetq Online, one of the publications I work for in Armenia, and it is now temporarily unavailable. Of course, with Edik Baghdasarian's hard hitting investigative journalism, it's no wonder that this would happen. In November, for example, the car belonging to the editor of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, Nikol Pashinian, was firebombed allegedly by MP, oligarch and former arm wrestler, Gagik Tsarukian (AKA Dodi Gago) in probable retaliation against the paper's reprinting of some of Edik's articles.

Of course, the businessman who is considered by some analysts to be a front for the business interests of two senior government officials, denied the allegations.

It's difficult to say what has exactly happened for now until Hetq investigates further but given the high profile investigation into the trafficking of women from Armenia to the United Arab Emirates which also includes allegations that members of the Armenian and UAE government are somehow involved, the "sudden disappearance" of the site comes at an interesting and convenient time. Thankfully, however, many – if not all – of those articles are available on Ara Manoogian's blog over at Martuni or Bust.

In the meantime, I shall be seeing Edik later today and will keep you updated on any new developments.


Tag: armenia | internet | censorship | media