Armenia: Internet Boom
The recent post-election unrest in Armenia and the state of emergency that has banned much of the media activities has given an unprecedented Internet boom. Blogs and websites are literally being created every time, such as http://www.freearmnews.com/, http://www.lifeinarmenia.com/, and http://marti21.blogspot.com/, while existing websites are getting record visits from Armenian users.
My own blog, which in the past was visited only by a handful of visitors from Armenia every day, has received most hits from Armenian host servers in the last two weeks.
Even before the state of emergency, and on March 1, 2008, it was impossible to visit Armenian websites such as www.hetq.am and www.a1plus.am due to record visits.
The Internet is, undoubtedly, contributing to Armenia’s democratization and society’s engagement. No wonder why the government has started blocking this or that website.
nazarian on 19 Mar 2008 at 8:57 pm #
I hope the Samizdat on my site gets distributed. Visitors from Armenia are now the largest group of my audience.
This may be the only positive to come out of the censorship of media there. I am still pleasantly surprised about the underground reporting despite the abuse of the journalists we saw, and the reward on Pashinian’s head.