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Panel discussion on â€œFreedom of Speech in New Mediaâ€ and Media Key 2011 Award presentation take place - PHOTOSESSION

Panel discussion on â€œFreedom of Speech in New Mediaâ€ and Media Key 2011 Award presentation take place - <font color=red>PHOTOSESSION</font>

10 January 2012 15:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ramil Mammadli â€“ APA. A panel discussion on the topic of â€œFreedom of Speech in New Mediaâ€ hosted by Frontline Club took place in Baku.

Moderator of the event attended by the representatives of mass media was journalist Ilhamiyye Rzayeva, APA reports.

Editor-in-chief of Russian portal www.arqumenti.ru Dmitry Fedotov, APA Groupâ€™s Director General Vusala Mahirgizi and head of the Yeni Musavat newspaperâ€™s online version Khalid Kazimli delivered speeches at the event.

Fedotov said the situation in the Russian press differed from the press in other post-soviet countries not so much. â€œThe print and online media reached freedom of speech, but televisions still have problems in this field. The Russian televisions are under the state control. Of course, from outside everything is seen OKâ€. Fedotov said his country adopted defamation law and intensified the discussions over Internet control.

APA Groupâ€™s Director General Vusala Mahirgizi said there were some problems in the field of freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. She said non-adoption of defamation law is one of the remarks about that. â€œBut I donâ€™t consider that there is a problem in the activity of Internet media and social networks in the country. There is quite enough freedom in this field. I would like to say that today most free media in Azerbaijan is Internet media. Sometimes we hear some ideas and suppositions that the councils or other organizations will be created for controlling Internet. But there has been no official statement yet. I hope that there will be no such issue in the futureâ€.

Mahirgizi said that she supported the adoption of defamation law before its submission for discussion: â€œI donâ€™t think that the adoption of this law promises a special change. Any law becomes effective if its executors, supervisors and those who work on this law observe the requirements of the law. Only this approach can make this law effective. But I consider that by adopting this law Azerbaijan can put an end to one more remark by the international organizationsâ€.

Mahirgizi said that she welcomed the State Support Fund for Mass Media: â€œBut my personal opinion is that now there is no need to establish such fund and allocate funds for the internet media. The internet media has advertisement opportunities. If the advertisement atmosphere is liberalized, it will be more effective. In this circumstance, the perspective of any media organization to live and develop will be determined by the natural selectionâ€.

Mahirgizi also touched the internet media problems in Azerbaijan. She said failure of Internet resources in force major circumstances was a reality. â€œFor example, the serious difficulties were established in the working mechanism of Azerbaijanâ€™s internet resources during the incident occurred in the State Oil Academy. There were many problems related to the security and technical issues, law amendments on Internet media because this field was formed newlyâ€.
Editor-in-chief of the internet version of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Khalid Kazimli spoke about the problems of the internet media. He said the problems existing in the countryâ€™s media also exist in their portal. Underlining the importance of the law on defamation Khalid Kazimli said he does not expect special changes after the adoption of the law. He does not see need for changes in the legislation concerning new media.

Journalist Asef Guliyev, writer, publicist Hamid Herischi, president of the National Internet Forum Osman Gunduz, editor-in-chief of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Rauf Arifoglu, assistant to editor-in-chief of the Azadlig newspaper Rahim Hajiyev, political analyst Zardusht Alizadeh and lawyer Alasgar Mammadli spoke about the topic, expressed their views on the internet resources, problems of media. Editor-in-chief of the Yeni Musavat newspaper Rauf Arifoglu said problems exist both in the print media and in the internet media. He spoke about the court proceedings of his newspaper and shortage in the advertising market.

The Media Key-2011 award was presented at the end of the event. Huseynbala Salimov was named The Best Commentator of the Year, Vusala Alibeyli The Best Investigative Journalist, Rafig Aliyev The Media Person of the Year. The Best Reporter of the Year was not presented to anyone. The founder of the nomination Arif Aliyev said the jury failed to reach an understanding.

The founders of the Media Key award are New Generation Journalists Union and Azerbaijan Journalists Union.