Fact Check: Is “Parental Hour” banned at the Ministry of Internal Affairs? What does “Zhoghovurd” claim and what does the ministry say?
On October 8, at 08:00, the “Zhoghovurd” daily published an article titled “The Ministry of Internal Affairs has banned the use of “Parental Hour”. Is there an internal instruction?”, which claims that a number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are not allowed to use the “parental hour” provided for by law.
The article specifically states that “a number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have raised the alarm” that the ministry is internally prohibiting them from using this opportunity and is demanding that the working day continue until 6:00 PM.
However, the publication’s main claim – that employees at the Ministry of Internal Affairs are prohibited from taking “parental leave” – has not been confirmed.
What does “Zhoghovurd” claim?
The publication begins with the hypothesis that employees with children in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are actually deprived of the benefits provided by law.
from privilege.
The article uses phrases such as “a number of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have raised the alarm,” “internal procedures do not allow them,” and
“Employees have been told not to take advantage of this opportunity.”
At the same time, at the end of the publication, it is noted that the newspaper has contacted the Ministry of Internal Affairs for comment.
In other words, the weighty claim presented at the beginning of the article, as the current situation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was not yet a confirmed fact at the time of publication.
What did the Ministry of Internal Affairs respond to?
According to the same publication, Interior Ministry Spokesperson Narek Sargsyan denied the information presented.
The ministry reported that Interior Ministry employees are able to take advantage of the “parental leave” provided for by law.
Moreover, according to the ministry, more than 80 employees have already exercised this right.
This fact is significant, because if there was actually a general ban in the ministry, its compatibility with the fact that dozens of employees actually exercised that right would have to be substantiated.
What happened after the publication?
About two hours later, the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Narek Sargsyan, addressed the publication on his Facebook page and wrote that the information spread by the “Zhoghovurd” daily newspaper that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had banned the use of “Parental Hour” did not correspond to reality.
Thus, the main claim of the article not only has not received public evidence, but has also been directly denied by the institution about which the claim was made.
And what is “parenting time”?
The article correctly presents another, separate circumstance: “parental leave” is a legally stipulated labor right.
According to the publication, with the amendments adopted by the National Assembly on June 18, 2026 and entering into force on July 10,
“Parental time” has been enshrined in the Labor Code.
According to the proposed regulation, an employee who meets the relevant conditions may take advantage of parental leave of up to 30 minutes or up to one hour per day, depending on the number of children and other circumstances provided for by law.
It is important, however, to distinguish between two different claims.
Fact 1: The law provides for the right to “parental time.”
Fact 2: The Ministry of Internal Affairs prohibits the exercise of this right.
The first statement refers to a general right defined by law, and the second refers to the specific situation of the application of that right in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The second statement does not follow from the first and needs independent proof.
Where is the problem of disinformation?
The problematic part of the publication is not the information about the existence of “parental hours”, but about the ban on its use in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Presenting unconfirmed information as fact.
The wording in the headline, “The Ministry of Internal Affairs has banned the use of “Parental Time”,” creates a clear impression in the reader that there is such a ban in the ministry.
Meanwhile, the content of the article does not present any document, internal directive, order, or other verifiable evidence of that ban.
At the same time, the article itself publishes the opposite position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to which there is no such prohibition, and more than 80 employees have already taken advantage of the opportunity provided by law.
What is manipulative?
The title of the article is formulated as an established fact: “The Ministry of Internal Affairs has banned it,” while within the article a question is used: “Is there an internal instruction?”
This difference is important.
If there is only an unconfirmed employee report or information, it would be more journalistically accurate to present it as an allegation or report, not as a confirmed fact.
Moreover, the article presents the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ denial only at the end of the article, while the reader’s first and strongest impression is formed from the title and the beginning of the article.
Conclusion
The key claim in the publication of the “Zhoghovurd” daily newspaper, that employees at the Ministry of Internal Affairs are prohibited from using “Parental Hours”, is not proven by the published material.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs officially denied this information and stated that
Employees are able to exercise the right provided by law, and more than 80 employees have already taken advantage of it.
Therefore, this publication cannot be presented as confirmed fact regarding the ban on “parental hours” at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Without an internal directive,
Presenting such a claim as fact, without a document or at least verifiable and independent sources, may mislead the reader.
Sargis Asatryan
The material was prepared within the framework of the Disinformation Flows Monitoring Project.
#CivilSocietyCooperation #ishrarmenia #ishrfactcheck
The project is implemented with the financial support of the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.