'Int'l organizations biased against Azerbaijan'

Double standards are shown by international organizations toward Azerbaijan as far as freedom of speech and press is concerned, Azerbaijan newspaper Chief Editor, MP Bakhtiyar Sadigov told Trend on Wednesday.

Expressing his attitude to the Freedom House report, the MP noted that the activities of such organizations and their reports are questionable.

The international NGO Freedom House published an annual index of the level of freedom in 197 countries around the world.

"The legislation has created such an environment that in Azerbaijan it is very easy to set up a newspaper, to do journalism. In Azerbaijan there are not prohibited topics, closed zone for journalists. The concept of state support for media development has been adopted, and based on this concept, the Fund of State Support for Media Development was established," Sadigov said.

He said that to strengthen the material-technical base of the press, to improve the social welfare of journalists the state provides financial assistance, announces grant projects, conducts contests, and by the presidential order funds were allocated, a house for journalists is under construction.

"Not to see all this, to say the same thing, always to be so biased towards Azerbaijan will not bring respect to these organizations, because their bias is obvious," the deputy said.

He said journalists turn to a variety of topics. They express their attitude to everything from the ordinary civil servants to senior officials, head of state, write articles about them, criticize them, and unfortunately, sometimes use abusive language.

"That is, there is no problem in Azerbaijan with freedom of press and speech, and this is the success of the Azerbaijani government," Sadigov said.


/Trend/