Media

Media

Roundtable entitled â€œSupport for mediaâ€ existing principles and alternativenessâ€

02 October 2009 12:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Elnur Mammadli â€“ APA. The Press Council of Azerbaijan has organized roundtable entitled â€œSupport for mediaâ€ existing principles and alternativenessâ€ and attended by the members of the Press Council, editors-in-chief and representatives of international organizations, APA reports.

Chairman of the Press Council Aflatun Amashov said there are government-funded newspapers in many European countries and special attention is paid to the regional newspapers. â€œIf there is no government support, the newspapers are funded by other forms. The newspapers are free from value added tax or pay not much in the number of countries. These issues were discussed at the Press Council. We aim to discuss it with local and foreign experts at the round tableâ€.

Head of the Fund of Government Support for Media Development Vugar Safarov said the fund provided the newspapers with one-time financial assistance and it was also planning to fund different media projects and to organize yearend competitions among the journalists.

Editor-in-chief of Azerbaijan newspaper Bakhtiyar Sadigov said he leads official newspaper, but it was not funded by the government. â€œWe are publishing the official decisions, resolutions of the parliament, Central Election Commission, but we are working on the self-supporting basis. We would like the fund to take it into consideration next yearâ€.

Editor-in-chief of Khalg Cebhesi (The Popular Front) newspaper Elkchin Mirzabeyli said the newspapers are funded by the government in some European countries, particularly in Germany.

Editor-in-chief of Ayna (The Mirror) newspaper Elchin Shikhli said he is against the one-time assistance. â€œIt is impossible to improve the work of newspapers by 5000-10000 AZNâ€.

Representative of the OSCE Office in Baku Jacqueline Carpenter said the government uses different methods to support newspapers in the different countries. â€œIt needs to make newspapers to be able for self-supporting.

US embassyâ€™s public relations officer Terry Davidson also said that he was against the government support for media. â€œThere is no free dinner. The dinner organizer expects something from the opposite side. If the journalist is working for the government-supported newspaper, it will be difficult for him to express free idea. The government-supported newspaper is not independent. It is same for the newspapers funded by the political partiesâ€.