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Meeting with International Press Institute officials held at Azerbaijan Press Council

22 February 2011 15:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Meeting with Director of the International Press Institute (IPI) Alison Bethel McKenzie and IPI Press and Communications Manager Anthony Mills was held at Azerbaijanâ€™s Press Council. Press Council told APA that members of the Press Council Management Board, media representatives attended the event. IPI is one of the influential media unions in the world with advisory voice at the meetings of the UN and UNESCO.

Making a keynote speech at the meeting chairman of the Press Council Aflatun Amashov gave information about the activity of the Council. Aflatun Amashov said along with the traditional work principles the Council is actively working in two other directions. First, to achieve the improvement of the financial condition of press, application of the experience on placing announcements and advertisements in mass media, second, the adoption of the defamation law.
â€œAt the moment we are working on the defamation law. We are at the stage of completion. I hope the issue will be solved soon,â€ he said.

Director of the International Press Institute (IPI) Alison Bethel McKenzie said IPI has representatives almost in all countries. It has 20 national committees. One of them is in Azerbaijan, its work is highly appreciated.
â€œThe aim of our visit is to better familiarize with the work of the National Committee, concern ourselves with the freedom of speech and press in Azerbaijan, observe the related tendencies and determine, which problems IPI can help to solve. I think our discussion will mainly focus on this,â€ she said.

IPI Press and Communications Manager Anthony Mills focused attention on the experience of dialogue between the journalists of conflict regions. He said there was a practice of bringing the journalists of France and Germany together after the World War II: â€œWe held a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian journalists. First of all, media representatives must not forget their mission. We invite them to show professional attitude to the events and processesâ€.

Azeri-Press Agencyâ€™s (APA) Director General Vusala Mahirgizi focused attention on the regular meetings which bring the Azerbaijani and Armenian journalists together. The General Director said media representatives of the two countries were meeting during various events and added that the main issue is to reach common position between the Azerbaijani and Armenian officials and to solve the conflict. â€œRegarding the defamation, the President of Azerbaijan emphasized the importance of this issue in his meeting with the members of the Press Council Board in this room. There are problems with obtaining information from the first source. Some media workers donâ€™t realize their missions completely. I think education is also important factor in this issue. The universities need in growing of public relations experts. Media-management relations are also important. We would like that the International Press Institute assists the Azerbaijani journalism in existed directions, holds training courses and other educational eventsâ€.

Managers of other media organizations also delivered speeches in the event.