Media

Media

â€œSocial Media in Turkic speaking societies: new angle of view as connecting factorâ€ panel was held within II Media Platform of Turkic speaking states - PHOTOSESSION

28 October 2011 19:06 (UTC +04:00)

â€œSocial Media in Turkic speaking societies: news angle of view as connecting factorâ€ was discussed at the second panel. The Panel was presided by Kaysar Janakhanov General Director of Kazakhstanâ€™s â€œNur Media Holdingâ€.

Speaking at the panel, general director of â€œAPA Groupâ€ Vusala Mahirgizi touched situation in social media. V. Mahirgizi speaking firstly about situation of Internet media noted that internet usersâ€™ are 50 percent of Azerbaijani population: â€œAzerbaijan has rivalry in this field. The price of the internet is expected to be lower in these months. According to latest statistics, Azerbaijan is one of the leader states for the temp on lowering price of internet in the world. In the country internet can be used freely. There are no limitations for social networks. Although, www.odnoklassniki.ru was leader once but for the moment www.facebook.com is a leader. The Head of Azerbaijan Republic also has continuously updated page at www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com.
18-25 aged population is more active in this area. We can say that all media organs have a page on social network sites. The portals belonging to the Â«APA GroupÂ» also have pages on facebook.com Â».
V. Mahirgizi noted that although there are about 40 internet providers in the country, the service is not in high level. The main providersâ€™ servers are located out of the country.
Touching training of personnel for online media, she noted that Online Mass Media departments started functioning at several Universities of Azerbaijan: "The main way of breaking the information blockade for the Turkic states is the internet. For example, you can watch our TV channels via satellite. However, only those who know Azerbaijani can watch TV. But Agencies can solve this problem. "

V. Mahirgizi also said that there are news agencies broadcasted in foreign languages in Azerbaijan: "Azerbaijan is interested in cooperation with the Turkic-speaking media agencies. Our readers want this. Unfortunately, we could not create such a network. However, we have relations with "Nur Media Holding" in Kazakhstan and one news agency in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. "Trend" and "AzerTaj" took steps in that direction. But, unfortunately, there is no significant work that will give a fundamental result. It is important to establish a joint news agency under this platform. This agency should operate in English, French and Russian. The agency should not be ethnic, and should form at the transnational level. As, even though the official bodies have sites in foreign languages, they do not attract attention. I think, it is possible to exchange information via creating a social network structure consisting of journalists of Turkic societies. For example, there is a network of journalists, writing about ecology or oil-gas field in Europe.

The social networks like this will let us expand our relations.

Answering questions, V. Mahirgizi said that during the incident in Azerbaijan Oil Academy there were problems in the internet network: "There are active and passive users of the internet. Some users enter to the Internet only after the event. The current technical capabilities do not allow 4 million people to enter into internet. So, there is â€œtraffic jamâ€. "

V. Mahirgizi expressed her belief in the realization of the idea of creating a joint news structure and to be reflected at the final declaration of the platform. Answering question if any representative from South Azerbaijan attends platform, she said: "Unfortunately, none of the representatives of the Turkic-speaking media agencies in Iran was not invited to the forum. For example, there is Lake Urmia in South Azerbaijan. There is a process of swallowing of the lake. Azerbaijanis held protests several weeks ago. These protests were brutally suppressed, two people were killed, dozens injured, about 100 people were arrested. Foreign media did news on the event. Unfortunately, no news was given from Turkic statesâ€™ media on this event. If the Turkic-speaking media reports live from Tripoli, if it covers the protests, suppressed by Bashar al-Assad, they could do something about the protests, suppressed by Ahmadinejad. Especially, if suppressed are Turks, this attention should be doubled"

General Director of the Kazakhstanâ€™s "Nur media Holding " Kaysar Dzhanahanov reminded that 10 million Kazakhs were repressed and underwent genocide during the Soviet times, around 7 million were exiled, 3 million fled to China. Therefore, the Kazakhs understand this issue and are ready to support. He also noted that the U.S. controls most domains: Â«U.S. can block access to the internet any time. The Turkic-speaking countries should make efforts to establish one single joint domain."

Formation of joint network against so-called Armenian "genocide" was also proposed at the panel.

The panel continued with additional proposals and discussions.