Non-residential premise in "House of Journalists" put up for auction

Baku/31.10.23/Turan: Non-residential premise of 676 m2 located on the ground floor of the residential building "House of Journalists" has been put up for auction by bailiffs. Meanwhile, the facility confiscated from the developer of the building ("Protos" LLC) and former executive director of the State Media Support Fund Vugar Seferli would be quite useful for journalists to use as a "newsroom". 

The auction  is held by the State Property Service and will be held on 29 November. Non-residential premises (address: Baku, New Salyan Road) is estimated at AZN 2,427,300 or AZN 3,590 ($2,112).

In April this year, the Supreme Court rejected the cassation appeal of the former owners of the non-residential premises in the criminal case on its release from confiscation in favour of the state.

Add that the first residential building for journalists was built in 2010-2013 at the expense of the state budget. There is no publicly available information on how the ground floor of the residential building ended up in the ownership of the above-mentioned legal entities and individuals. Also unknown remains to be the preliminary purpose as specified by the construction project of the ground floor of the 17-storey building.

Current regulations on the organisation of auctions make it possible to sell movable and immovable property put up for auction at 50% of the starting price in the absence of bids at the previous four auctions.

Whether the issue of transferring non-residential premises for the use of journalists or their associations has been discussed remains to be seen. Many editorial offices of newspapers, online media, as well as independent journalists have serious difficulties with creative space. Hundreds of families live in the two buildings rented out to media representatives.The ground floor of the first one could serve as their permanent socialising and co-working space.-08B-