<b>Jahangir Memmedli: “The domestic media has a great role in increasing passion and patriotism of the nation”<br /> </b><br /> <br /> On 24 December, International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF) gathered journalists under the topic of “The Media and Garabagh Conflict”, an event that was held in the Tartar region and supported by the Fund of State Support for the Development of Mass Media under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (FDMM) . The conference was joined by outstanding faces from the mass media nased in Baku, as well as from the local executive bodies, municipal administrations, NGOs and members of the regional media.
Vidadi Isayev, the head of executive authority of the Tartar district hailed the participants and talked about the processes of progress made in the districts, and the Presidential support to the local media.
Umud Mirzayev, the head of IEPF in his speech stated the purpose of “Disseminating state policy on the Garabagh conflict in a public domain”. He summed up the phases of media in Azerbaijan this way: “Our media passed lots of difficulties since the time when it made its first step with the “Ekinchi” newspaper in 1875. In that period our media stood up staunchly against Armenia, the offensive neighbor of Azerbaijan. But then it came across many hindrances on the way of making known all realities of the conflict in the czar Russia and even Soviet periods. And since 1980s, we have closely observed Armenia’s dirty political trick for the purpose of occupying Azerbaijan’s territories.
We acknowledge that we lost the information war of the Garabagh conflict because it was the time when we were under Soviet, and all media news and reports were passing through the filter of Moscow. There were tens of Armenians who stood for Armenia at the Moscow central administration, and based on that situation, it was hard to send any info about the Garabagh conflict to the world information community”.
Umud Mirzayev further talked about role of the mass media in independent Azerbaijan. Mr. Mirzayev emphasized the modern improvement of the media and the role the state support to it has played, saying it would be helpful for media to effectively participate in solving the conflict.
Cahangir Memmedli, a chair occupant and professor of Baku State University made a speech about the role of the media in increasing passion for victory and patriotism of the nation. He especially noted that the domestic media has a great role in increasing passion for victory and patriotism of the nation, and regional media has a big role to play on this issue. He added the necessity of the media to being attentive in writing about the conflict.
Aydin Kerimov, a famous lawyer, and Chairman of the Independent Law Centre, spoke about rights of journalists and things that they have to know to maintain military secrets writing reports. He also talked about legislation that must be known by professional journalists.
Follow-up speeches were made by Tahir Aydinogly, deputy chair of “Khalg Gazeti”, Aydin Guliyev and Jamaleddin Guliyev, heads of “Baki-Kheber” and “Pritet” respectively. Some of the following were the topics of the various speeches: “Front and Media”, “Necessity of Maintaining State and Military Secrets when spreading Information and Writing Reports from Battle-Fields” and etc.
All participants at the meeting highly estimated the media’s role at the Garabagh conflict and this event, too.
Tofig Yusif, Bakhsheish Abbasogly, Amina Yusifgizi, editors in chief of “Yeni Tartar”, “Aghdam” and “The Kur” newspapers respectively, also joined the event as regional media members. They mainly talked about the state support to the regional media, especially by the FDMM, and the importance of this event. Various other participants spoke about challenging issues warranted due to prolonged process of resolving the Garabagh conflict.
Information department of IEPF