Guillotine

The Media Development Agency (MDA) denied  registration  of photojournalist Aziz Karimov  after he electronically applied to this structure with a desire to be registered in the registry of media and journalists in accordance with Article 74 of the Media Law.

The MDA  justified  the rejection by the fact that Karimov does not have a minimum three-year work experience as a full-time journalist in the media editorial office, and also by the fact that the photographer is not a journalist. Karimov has been involved in photojournalism for many years and, as an individual entrepreneur, has an agreement with the editorial office of the Turan agency, is based in the agency, and sells his photo products to everyone interested in his work. Karimov's photographs are published in world publications.

The Article 74.2.10 of the Law on Media actually states that a freelance journalist can be registered in the media registry, subject to three years of work experience. However, the law does not indicate that this length of service should be accrued while working in the editorial office. Mehman Aliyev, director of the news agency Turan, asked DOST (Agency for Sustainable and Operative Social Security under the Ministry of Labor): Is the length of service for the years worked counted for self-employed people? DOST replied that since 2006, if a given person made insurance contributions to the Fund, then he is credited with the length of service for the years of contributions.

So, on the first issue, clarity has been introduced. MDA unreasonably, illegally, abusing its powers, used Article 74.2.10. about a mandatory three-year experience, refusing to Karimov.

Now let's move on to the second reason for the refusal - the photographer. The MDA believes that a photographer, a video operator are not journalists, that is, creative employees. They are classified as editorial staff. There is information that representatives of these professions are denied registration in other media as well.

My course at the Faculty of Journalism involved learning photography. I passed an exam in this subject, and photo production is an integral part of being a journalist.

Let's see what Wikipedia says about this for a wide, including non-journalistic audience:

Photojournalism is a specific form of journalism that uses photography as its main medium of expression. Photojournalism differs from related genres of photography (such as documentary photography, street photography, and celebrity photography) in the following ways: 

Time - snapshots matter in the chronological context of the development of events.

Objectivity - the situation assumes that the photographs will be honest and will accurately reproduce the captured events.

Narrative - Snapshots, combined with other elements of the news, inform, and give the reader or viewer an idea of the essence of events.

It turns out that  MDA is abusing the use of the term photographer, taking it out of the context of journalism. Yes, a photographer acting outside the scope of a journalist is just a photographer, for example, taking a photo in a photo studio or wishing on the boulevard. That is, he shoots static photos, although this work also requires an artistic look at the subject of photography. I say, I do not want to offend photographers outside of journalism. I personally recognize them as carriers of the creative profession, but now  the talk is about journalism.

Even during the adoption of the Law on Media, we expressed concern and warned that the law in many of its provisions has contradictions, violations of the law of logic, leaves room for various interpretations, and thus can be easily used to block the activities of editorial offices and journalists. In general, the philosophy of law expresses this. Figuratively, it is reminiscent of a guillotine

In general, can someone explain:

Why is it necessary to have three years of work experience to get on the register as a freelancer, and not one or five, ten?

Why is a full-time editorial journalist with less than three years of experience in the editorial staff considered in the register? According to the logic of Article 74.2.10 (must have at least 3 (three) years of work experience in the field of journalism jurnalistika sahəsi üzrə 3 (üç) ildən az olmayaraq iş stajı olmalı), should he not be included in the register?

Why does a person who wants to be a journalist with the status of an individual entrepreneur not have the right to perform the duties of a reporter, photojournalist, video operator until he has worked for three years in any editorial office?

I ask these questions not in the age of the linotype - the printed journalist, but in the age of multimedia, when any citizen who wants to express himself in the field of production and dissemination of information does this without asking anyone, because technically this makes no sense, but politically - this right is given to him by Article 51 of the Constitution - the highest law of the state, which has no right to block any lower law, including on the media.

Since we have touched on the issue of the registry, we will move on to another controversial provision blocking the legalization of the media and freelancers. For example, the mandatory production of 20 copyright materials by the editors does not matter - this is information in one paragraph or an article that takes many hours or days to write. Why 20 and not 10 or 50? Why does this criterion equally apply to the editorial office with three journalists and with the 70th? Or maybe make a change and set the norm per person, for example, one piece or two? Then it will be more fair - the first norm is 6 information, and the second - 140. I imagine that the first, after reading this sentence, will rejoice, and the second will receive a massive heart attack.

In general, it would be nice for our officials, who came up with such a law on the media, and the register as its main cutting guillotine, to apply this know-how in other areas as well.

Police - investigate so many criminal cases, neutralize so many criminals

Physicians - to examine so many patients per day, so many operations

Agricultural producers - to plant so many potatoes, to harvest such and such a crop

Deputies - to discuss and adopt so many laws per day

Drive everyone into the registers of professional workshops and oblige.

But first of all, it is worth creating such a register for the executive branch with obligations to prevent unemployment, inflation, corruption, with a mandatory annual increase in pensions, salaries (not for civil servants and deputies), and so on.

Much can be said about the problems of the registry, the media law in general, and have already been said. We were not heard. But back to Aziz Karimov. In the photo for this article, the reader can see Aziz's accreditation badges from various local and international events, which recognized him as a photojournalist not only by status, but by virtue of his merits in the field of photojournalism.

I am writing this article at a time when Aziz is filming and sharing his footage of the earthquake in Turkey. Formal non-recognition of him as a photojournalist by MDA does not change the situation. Wipe your eyes gentlemen!