OSCE Office: A professional and impartial media is driving force for democracy in Azerbaijan

BAKU, 22 July 2004 - "A free, responsible and pluralistic press is vitally important for Azerbaijan's democratic future," the OSCE Office in Baku said today on the occasion of the country's National Press Day.

"This event is an opportunity for all of us to assess the state of Azerbaijani media, the environment in which it functions and its role within the democratic process in the country," Ambassador Maurizio Pavesi, Head of the OSCE Office said in a statement to journalists.

"Strong, stable, secure and functioning democratic societies are not possible without professional, responsible and free media."

While acknowledging positive changes, the OSCE Office still sees serious and urgent issues which need to be resolved in Azerbaijan in the field of media.

Among positive changes the Office welcomes the President's veto of an unsatisfactory Law on Public Television, the introduction of a more open and inclusive legislative process and the dropping of criminal charges against the independent journalist Irada Huseynova.

However, incidents such as the recently reported kidnapping of Aydin Quliyev, the editor-in-chief of the Baki-Kheber newspaper, raise concerns over the future of the media in Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Office in Baku also remains concerned about the continuing use of defamation suits against newspapers and journalists, difficulties in access to information and violence against journalists.

The Office also urged the Azerbaijani media and journalists to better fulfil their obligation to serve the public, to promote the practice of responsible and professional journalism and to refrain from using defamation and unreliable sources of information in their work.

22 July is marked as National Press Day in Azerbaijan, as the first national publication, The Akinchi (The Plowman) newspaper, was printed on this day in 1875 under the editorship of the renowned Azerbaijani thinker, Hasan Bey Zardabi.