In 2006 British Council Armenia realised a programme entitled “Role of Media in Monitoring Government Programmes”. Reporters from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia visited the United Kingdom to get acquainted with the work of reporters there and participate in some courses.
Suren Deheryan, a programme participant, who is now the founding editor of the first Armenian platform providing data reporting - Ampop.am, says: “My participation in the programme gave me new impetus and new ideas for implementing such projects in my own country that would bring a positive change to Armenia in terms of protecting the freedom of speech and developing free and quality media.”
After the visit to London, inspired by the example of the British Metro newspaper distributed free of charge, Suren has implemented several media projects as part of which special issues of the newspaper on a number of current topics in Armenia were released in large print circulation and distributed free of charge in busy places in the capital city and seven other towns.
Since 2007 Suren Deheryan has been president of Journalists for the Future NGO and also teaches at the Department of Journalism in Yerevan State University.