Spotlight on Silence: Surveillance State: Armenia’s Biometric Crackdown | Ep 446, Jun 15, 2025 Artwork

Armenian News Network - Groong: Week In Review Podcast

Weekly review of Armenian News from https://groong.org. Keeping up with news related to Armenia and Armenians can be challenging; the sheer volume of news in the past few years has increased greatly, and the rise of the “Fake News” phenomenon contributing to the erosion of trust in the news media. The diversity of languages used by the worldwide Armenian community also poses a challenge for Armenian news; there is a significant portion of news that originates in Armenian, sometimes in Russian, and does not get adequately translated into English, or Western Armenian, for those in the Diaspora who are not proficient in Eastern Armenian. Finally, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the political turbulence in countries where significant communities of the Armenian Diaspora reside, be it Syria, Lebanon, the United States, etc., many of our friends and colleagues indicate that they’re simply overloaded with information and lack the time and energy to separate the good from the bad. So we’re creating this weekly digest of news and analysis that we find relevant to share with our friends and the wider ANN/Groong audience. Our goal is to provide a brief overview of the main headlines of the past week, and then cover a smaller set of the more important developments, curated by ANN/Groong editors and contributors who spend an inordinate amount of time daily to process Armenian news. We hope that over time this podcast will help our listeners in becoming more astute consumers of Armenian news. We will strive to provide a rich set of notes with each installation, with links to the most relevant articles and information as a starting point for your further investigation.

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Armenian News Network - Groong: Week In Review Podcast

Spotlight on Silence: Surveillance State: Armenia’s Biometric Crackdown | Ep 446, Jun 15, 2025

June 15, 2025 • Armenian News Network / Groong • Episode 446

Spotlight on Silence - June 15, 2025

In this episode of Groong: Spotlight on Silence, we speak with Rafael Ishkhanyan of the Armenian Center for Political Rights about Armenia’s sweeping new surveillance law. Passed quietly in March 2025, the law grants police 24/7 access to camera networks across public institutions and allows for real-time facial recognition, raising deep concerns about privacy, political targeting, and unchecked state power. We explore what the law says, what it leaves out, and why international silence—despite clear risks to civil liberties—has been so striking.

Topics:

Armenia legalizes round-the-clock surveillance.
Law enables political targeting, critics warn.
No oversight, no privacy laws.
Silence from Armenia’s new geopolitical allies.

Guest: Rafael Ishkhanyan

Hosts:

Episode 446 | Recorded: June 12, 2025

SHOW NOTES: https://podcasts.groong.org/446

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/EvCc_ST2hPg

#Armenia #SurveillanceState #FacialRecognition #PrivacyRights #DigitalAuthoritarianism #ACPR #HumanRights

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Armenian News Network - Groong: Week In Review Podcast