Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani media has passed a glorious way and reached today's level of development, said Bahar Muradova, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament.

She made the remark during a meeting with media representatives at the Parliament on February 17.

The national media has always demonstrated its proper position in the formation and development of the Azerbaijani state and society, said Muradova, adding that thus contributed to the achievement of all important tasks in the most difficult periods of the history.

“The creation of our state, loss of independence and its restoration, violation of the territorial integrity of the country and problems created by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, have always been covered by our press,” she said.

The vice speaker added that the government appreciates the importance of the press. “Azerbaijan is a developing country, and since gaining independence, achieved considerable successes, some of which are associated with media. The legislation related to the media has been improved, while the state provides full support to the media,” she noted.

Muradova emphasized that after gaining independence, the Azerbaijani mass media adequately overcame all difficulties and played an important role in building a democratic society.

Today, the development of an independent press in Azerbaijan continues, with over 4,500 registered press bodies, most of which are newspapers and magazines, over 30 news agencies, and 44 electronic media outlets.

The Azerbaijani press played a significant role in the formation of national thinking and dignity, said Aflatun Amashov, Chairman of Media Council.

He added that the press also played an important role in the national movement for freedom.

“Today, the press in Azerbaijan is completely independent and operates freely. The state has always supported the Azerbaijani press. The Azerbaijani press is patriotic and always supports the national interests of our people and the state. It plays an important role in bringing the Azerbaijani realities to the world community,” Amashov emphasized.

In turn, Vugar Safarli, Executive Director of the Fund of State Support for Development of Mass Media under the Azerbaijani President touched upon the question of providing material support to the e-media by the state, noting that this issue will be resolved in the near future.

He added that the issue is on the agenda, noting however, in case of allocation of funds, it will cover not all electronic media.

“Today many people read websites. As many as 80 percent of the materials published there are copied from each other, and repeated. Do we need such news portals? I think that allocation of financial assistance will be provided for media, operating mainly in foreign languages, and informing the world community about Azerbaijan's fair position,” he said.

Political analyst Arzu Nagiyev, for his part, talked about the military journalism, stressing the importance of developing appropriate draft law on this matter.

Nagiyev said that the project should include both journalism activity and insurance issues.
“Now, sending a journalist of any online or newspaper or TV to the military area is very dangerous, since everything can happen there,” he said.

Nagiyev said that the majority of the reporters dying in the world are war reporters.

Azerbaijan remains in a state of war with Armenia, as Armenian forces keep under occupation a 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but negotiations still continue on a long-term peace agreement. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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