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Elnur Baimov: Our mission is to spread news about Azerbaijan â€“ INTERVIEW

Elnur Baimov: Our mission is to spread news about Azerbaijan â€“ <font color=red>INTERVIEW </font>

26 October 2009 14:28 (UTC +04:00)

Editor-in-chief of www.news.az portal Elnur Baimov interviewed by APA

-What is reason to launch English-language portal in Azerbaijan?

-The editor-in-chief of the Times says that there is more information in the 21st century than is needed and the main difficulty is to present the necessary information to the reader. Several Azerbaijani agencies release news in English. But I think they do not release the news articles in the format to which a western reader has been accustomed. Therefore, we launched this site to release the main news about Azerbaijan and t he region in the format to which a western reader has been accustomed.

-What kind of news articles will be mainly released on your site?

-The main news articles will be about Azerbaijan. There will be no showbiz news. Economic, social and political news articles will be released, we will release news about Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Russia.

-Has the staff of the portal been completely formed?

-Yes, it has been. We have 10-man staff. Some of them are foreigners, they once worked in foreign media outlets. They help us to raise our working standards to the level of the international news sites. Secondly, they make our news articles in the format to which they have been accustomed. They are also working on the language. They qualify our Azerbaijani employees.

-And what about the salary of the employees? Will it be in line with the world standards?

-For Azerbaijan we pay good salary. Some of our employees have been transferred from other media outlets, we take this into consideration.

- What political position will the site take?

- I try to stand off the politics. Everyone knows my position. I am not a pro-government or oppositionist. This is a business project and we are ready to work with all political forces and we do that.

- Will the portal have Azerbaijani section?

-There is no Azerbaijani section. Our mission is spreading information about Azerbaijan in the world.

-Which well-known journalists will work with you?

- Some journalists call themselves as brands, but we are far from such cases. We donâ€™t divide the journalists to well-known or non-known. Our working principle is not so.

-How do you see prospects of the site?

- The prospect is that we will try to be leading source of Azerbaijani news for the Western audience. We are placing video tapes of interviews on the site. We launched Mugham Radio together with this site. We are placing many photos. Our mission is spreading of topical news not damaging anyoneâ€™s interests or taking somebodyâ€™s side.

- Why donâ€™t you spread showbiz news?

- There is too much showbiz news in the domestic market of Azerbaijan. This is very negative case. The foreigners are not interested in our showbiz because it is in lowest level. We are covering the jazz festival now and visitors intensively read these news. The foreigners donâ€™t need in news about Aygun Kazimova and therefore we donâ€™t want to spend time wrongly.

- Who is founder of the portal?

- Iâ€™ve founded it and I am owner and editor-in-chief as well.