Discussing the problems of mass media in the South Caucasus

Regular  civilian hearing  "The problem of independence of the media in the South Caucasus" took place last  Saturday in Tbilisi. Presentations were made by Timur Maksudov (Azerbaijan), Yuri Manvelyan (Armenia), and Nino Djapiashvili (Georgia.) She  told about  the problems of independent media in Georgia. According to the editor of the magazine "Tsheli chocoladi", the October parliamentary elections is an  "extremely comfortable" situation to identify strengths and weaknesses of the Georgian media, the level of its freedom.

    According to the Caucasus Information Resource Center (CIRC), 88% of the population receives information on TV, 2% - from print media, 1% - on the radio and only 5% through online resources, said Djapiashvili.

    A journalist of the newspaper "Echo" ,Timur Maksudov, told about the problems of independent media in Azerbaijan. According to him, you can hardly find a freedom of speech in its true meaning in the Azerbaijani mass media. There are many reasons:  just like in all other spheres, it is a monopoly. Second, none of the publications can be considered fully independent.

    Recently, a much is spoken about  the control of the Internet by the secret  services, and the talks on the  necessity of  full control of the Internet by the National Security Ministry (NSM)  have been lasting for five years , said Maksudov.

    The editor of the online publication epress.am ,Yuri Manvelyan, told about the  problems of mass media in Armenia The pressure on journalism and its representatives is made  according to he general scheme, which fits in the theses: - do not wash dirty linen in public, do not reduce the rating of Armenia, conceal facts, correct them, because the enemy can take advantage of this - in a hostile neighbors, we do not have the right on journalism, the idea of ??independent media is dictated from the outside;

    - Our mentality is not suited to publish the problems of the minorities, domestic violence, equality of people, demystification of  power, demythologizing history and culture, the truth about the war - there are not such problems  at all, they are far-fetched, he said.

    The event was held in the framework of "Symbolic Caucasian Court of Human Rights, and Civil Service Hearings on Democracy in the Caucasus countries" supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED.) The author and director of the program is the Professor Niyazi Mehdi (Azerbaijan). The organizers  are the  Alliance of Women for Civil Society (Azerbaijan), the  Caucasus Center of Peace Initiatives (Armenia), and the  Caucasus Center of civil proceedings (Georgia.)-16D-