Media

Media

Vusala Mahirgizi: â€œAPAâ€™s getting bureau in the Council of Europe is regarded as a great event not only for us, but also for Azerbaijanâ€-PHOTOSESSION

Vusala Mahirgizi: â€œAPAâ€™s getting bureau in the Council of Europe is regarded as a great event not only for us, but also for Azerbaijanâ€-<font color=red>PHOTOSESSION </font>

01 June 2009 13:35 (UTC +04:00)

-What was the aim of your visit to the Council of Europe and what meetings were held during the visit?

-The visit was realized at the invitation of the Council of Europe Directorate of Communication. It was a visit of familiarization and was also connected with opening of APAâ€™s office in the Council of Europe. APA has a bureau in the main office of the Council of Europe and everybody underlined that it was a great event not only for APA but also for Azerbaijan. Head of Azerbaijani permanent representation to the Council of Europe, Ambassador Arif Mammadov also said this when he received me. APA is the first agency from the CIS that has office in the Council of Europe. 13 media organizations have offices in the main office of the Council of Europe, our agency is one of them. Turkey-based NTV channel, Italian ANSA agency, DPA agency of Germany, Reuters, Agence France-Presse have offices in the Council of Europe. APA is also among them. The office has been technically supplied, our correspondent in the Council of Europe has direct access to all structures of the Council of Europe. Of course, this is a great achievement for us. At the meetings it was underlined that APAâ€™s getting the office was the display of great interest in Azerbaijan and respect for APA. APA has won this confidence with its independent position. Moreover, one of our privileges is that we issue news articles in the main languages of the Council of Europe â€“ French and English. APA is the first and only agency in the Caucasus to launch online news footage. It was underlined that APA released news from the Council of Europe without commenting or distorting. They said they were following our news articles and cited concrete news. The articles concerning the Council of Europe published in each of the 47 member states are monitored. During the monitoring APA was considered one of the agencies whose news articles were trustworthy. APA regularly covers the activity of the Council of Europe, our materials are released in other media organizations of the country and region. Of course, our correspondent in the Council of Europe Fuad Gulubayli had a great role in these achievements, we have got such a bureau. His continuous work, contacts helped us in this.

-Does the visit have an impact on the APAâ€™s further activity?

-We are always following our principles of quick and unbiased news, but, of course, such achievements also promote the progress. We achieved agreement to obtain free video and photo materials of the Council of Europe and APA will have an opportunity to use free video service within the Council.

There were agreements with the European Court, Local regional Congress and other organizations for closer cooperation and more information in future. Of course, we made positive steps. They said never before the Azerbaijani media managers held series of meetings in the Council of Europe.

-Did you touch upon political issues in the meetings with the Council of Europe officials?

- No. I didnâ€™t hold political discussions in the meetings and I expressed my intentions to hold only media discussions and touch the prospects of cooperation between APA and the Council of Europe only when we scheduled the visit. I had short talks with some officials of the Council of Europe, but those meetings were not included in the visitâ€™s program. There were talks about the freedom of press. I am a member of the Press Council of Azerbaijan and therefore I held discussions on the state of media. There were discussions on the Media Development Support Fund, arrested journalists, economic situation of mass media, particularly Internet media problems in Azerbaijan. The priority of all meetings was the development of APA, the media organization I represent. As a media representative, I couldnâ€™t avoid the discussion of other issues as well.

-France is one of the countries with strong Armenian Diaspora. May the Azerbaijani media outlet face with problems in this country?

-I donâ€™t believe that. France is tolerant country and the Council of Europe has a good attitude to our country. The Azerbaijani media, APA is one the most influential media organizations in the Council of Europe. The Council officials emphasized for many times that Azerbaijan is a priority country for the Council of Europe. I saw the Councilâ€™s interest in close cooperation with Azerbaijan in the fields of media development as well. APA bureau in the Council is an indication of that interest. The people I met there frequently underlined that.

It is very satisfactory that APA has so high relations with the influential international organization. I didnâ€™t need to inform somebody at the Council of Europe about APA. They knew our agency and themselves informed me about its activity in the Council of Europe. I wish to all my colleagues to hear such influential and satisfactory opinions about their organizations.