Thursday, May 29 2014

Baku. The conference "Emerging of media and new
challenges" organized by the Press Council and the Center "Multimedia
was held on May 27 at the International Center of the press.

According to chief of department of the
presidential administration Vugar Aliyev , in the country there are about 4.5
thousand media, 300 of which are Internet resources.  About 1.3 million people or 12.4 % of the
population are users of Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of young people are
active users of Twitter and other social networks.  Aliyev admitted that the virtual resources are
not less than other media in the influence on the socio-political processes.

               "At
the same time, they fall out of legal liability because the law on the media
applies to "periodic printed publications, TV and radio programs and other
forms of newsreel proliferation." Nevertheless, there is a growing number
of citizens' complaints of network hooligans "insulting celebrities and
officials," and in this sense sites and portals are far ahead of
traditional publications.

                According to him, the situation is exacerbated
by the fact that most Internet servers, publications, as well as the authors of
some of them are abroad, write under assumed names, and use false accounts,
complained the representative of the presidential administration.  According to the Chairman of the Press
Council of Internet resources Elnur Baimov, in Azerbaijan there are 200
regularly updated information sites and portals. They account for 3.5 million
annually manat or 15 % of total advertising. However, most sites do not produce
specific content, preferring to copy other materials. It repels advertisers who
prefer to pay for the source, he said.

However, the speakers did not mention
that, according to the international organization Freedom House on May 1, 2014,
the rating of Azerbaijan freedom of speech is being increasingly degraded, and
the country ranks 183 among 193 countries.

                The media advertising market is limited.
According to international practice, this market should reach 1% of GDP. In the
case of Azerbaijan, it is 570 million ($ 730 million), but in reality, the
advertising market is 42 million manat. This is 13.5 times less than the
standard.

               Of
these, the opposition and the independent media receive minuscule allocated
under the state support. However, independent and opposition media are denied
this assistance on frivolous pretexts.

The overwhelming majority of the media
positioned as independent is controlled by the government and is funded through
business structures close to the government either legally or through advertising.  There is no independent television or
radio.  In the last period, the already
repressive media sphere experienced further decline due to increased government
control of the Internet and telephone correspondence of journalists and
bloggers; blocking sites; government intervention in the satellite broadcasting
radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.

Downgrading freedom of speech is also
influenced by the government attempts to control the news by putting pressure
on journalists, imposition of restrictions, tightened restrictions on the
Internet and social media.

According to the conclusions of Freedom
House, an improvement of the situation in the country depends on three factors:
the actual creation of independent private radio and television companies; political
pluralism in the online media, social media, and improve legal protection for
the press.