VOA’s Armenian Service provided 24/7 coverage of the occupation of a police station in the capital, Yerevan, which continued for a second consecutive week and resulted in an outpouring of support for the armed occupiers from thousands of residents who marched through the streets of Yerevan on July 25.
The live coverage resulted in a dramatic rise in visits and engagement with the Service’s web properties:
- Its website had over 2.3 million visits and 5.5 million page views over the course of one week
- The YouTube channel had 7 million views, 17,000 comments, more than 25,000 likes, dislikes and shares and the Service’s live stream had more than 1.8 million views.
More than 3.4 million Facebook post engagements were registered in the seven days to July 25, making the Armenian Service the most engaging Facebook page in Armenia.
Other global broadcasters and agencies, including AP, Australia’s ABC, Sky News, Euronews, Eurovision affiliates, Russia’s First Channel, RT, and TV Dozhd used the content to report about the occupation.