Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Key issues of journalism and mass media in Azerbaijan were discussed at the sixth Congress of Azerbaijani Journalists held on July 11 in the capital Baku.

Participants of the Congress paid tribute to the graves of Azerbaijan's National Leader Heydar Aliyev and the founder of Azerbaijan's national press Hasan bey Zardabi in the Alley of Honor.

The Presidential Administration's head of social and political affairs Ali Hasanov read out a letter from President Ilham Aliyev addressed to the participants of the Congress, which took place at the Azerbaijan State Musical Theatre named after Rashid Behbudov.

President Aliyev said in his letter that creating suitable conditions for free activity of the media to ensure political pluralism in Azerbaijan is one of the main directions of the state policy.

"As a result of successive reforms carried out in the country after 1993, all artificial barriers that restricted freedom of expression and information were eliminated, and the legislation governing the media activity was brought into compliance with international standards. The logistics of the national press was strengthened as well," the appeal said.

The message says further that the Press Council, established at the first Congress of Azerbaijani Journalists as a self-regulation body, has played an important role in regulating relations between the media and the state, as well as the media and the public, in accordance with modern international experience.

According to the President, the country's increased capabilities have now created the conditions for taking comprehensive measures to develop the media.

"The Azerbaijani government is taking consistent measures to strengthen the logistics of editorial offices, to ensure the social protection of journalists and other directions," President Aliyev wrote.

"I am sure that the decisions to be taken at the Congress will create the conditions for the Azerbaijani journalism to continue its mission within the country and abroad at a higher level and will have a positive impact on the development of the national press," the letter concluded.

Addressing the event, Ali Hasanov said a journalist's primary task is to provide people with information.

"The Azerbaijani government expects from journalism the following: to criticize the government, to write about executive bodies, to criticize the work of officials. The President of Azerbaijan has repeatedly criticized officials harsher than the opposition press. But do not forget about the sense of patriotism, the sense of responsibility," Hasanov said.

"A journalist is a citizen of his country and a representative of the social strata at the same time. Should we put the profession above the national values?" Hasanov said. Unfortunately, he added, there are some individuals in the Azerbaijani journalism who do not distinguish the interests of the country from those of the authorities.

"As a result, by simply translating the articles from our newspapers, the Armenian press distributes them around the world," he said.

He added that some individuals tend to "attribute everything good in the country to themselves, while bad things to the state".

"The state, rather than the authorities, is sometimes criticized," he said. "Some individuals carry out activity against the country amid the struggle against the authorities. By taking advantage of Azadliq newspaper delegate's participation at the congress, I would like to cite an example. It is known that Azadliq newspaper is a body established by one of the opposition parties. But Azadliq newspaper did not start its activity as a body of the party.

This newspaper started its activity from the period of Azerbaijan's independence and was a paper from which the people expected a position based on the state and statehood. But now all articles defying the Azerbaijani state and statehood written in any country are immediately published in this newspaper, with the aim to deal a blow to the current authorities. Even good things are distorted. This has been repeatedly proven by us."

Speaking at the event, Chairman of Azerbaijan's Press Council Aflatun Amashov said that the importance of the law on defamation in Azerbaijan is amply realized at the social and official levels.

"Discussions on the topic of defamation are held sequentially. However, there are opinions that the society is not ready for the adoption of this law. Others assert to the contrary. In this situation, there is a need for extensive and systematic expression of opinion of both sides, aligning them with the interests of the society as a whole," Amashov said.

According to him, differentiation of the private and social life of people by journalists is very important.

"Respect for the presumption of innocence of each person, attentive approach to the materials related to children and teenagers, and the protection of honor and dignity are indeed fine points which are well known to every professional journalist. However, we think that their reflection in the rules of professional conduct of journalists of Azerbaijan is very important," Amashov said.

The Press Council head also said that if Azerbaijan has chosen a path of building a democratic state, there should not be even theoretical barriers for freedom of speech and opinion which are the basic values in this regard.

He went on to say that as of today 84 mass media are on the black list of the Press Council.

According to him, whereas the number of blacklisted newspapers and magazines was 36 in 2008, the figure reached 94 in 2009 and 110 in 2010. Due to the 135^th anniversary of the press of Azerbaijan, it was decided to exclude 26 newspapers and journals from the list. In recent years 14 more newspapers have been excluded from the list, Amashov said.

The journalists' congress also made amendments to the bylaws of the Press Council. According to the changes, the Press Council will consider not only complaints related to newspapers, journals and news agencies, but also grievances pertaining to the activity of online media portals.

The participants of the sixth Congress of Azerbaijani Journalists re-elected Aflatun Amashov as the Chairman of the Press Council.

The participants also adopted an appeal to President Ilham Aliyev.

Hasanov told journalists that new trends are observed in the development of the Azerbaijani media.

"The sixth congress of journalists takes place during the period of improvement of Azerbaijani journalists' professionalism, gradual removal of negative instances in journalism and the period of press democracy," Hasanov said.

"Views, proposals and discussions voiced at the congress, in general, contribute to solving the social problems and improving the logistics of the media.

"I think that the Azerbaijani media will get rid of all problems in the period following the congress," Hasanov added.

Answering a question whether an initiative on the arrested journalists' release was put forward at the congress, Hasanov said there was no such initiative.

"If there is such an initiative, it can be considered," he said. "There are court decisions concerning some journalists and media agencies. One should not link this to the congress. Most of the arrested journalists have been pardoned. We wish other arrested journalists to be released as well."