Executive Director William A. Orme, Jr., who was interviewed on CNN International, Fox News "In Depth," MSNBC "Online," and numerous radio shows about Attacks on the Press in 1997, traveled to California for the April 6 launch of the book at a program at the Freedom Forum in San Francisco. He also addressed the regional conference of the Society for Professional Journalists in Spokane, Washington.
Committee to Protect Journalists
Special Reports
Armenia
Dangerous Assignments
| Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chile, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey
Minister of Press and Information: Siruz Khudat ogli Tabrizli, born
1942 in Tabriz, Iran. A writer, poet, former journalist. Holds
democratic views but is a strong supporter of President Heidar Aliyev.
Member of parliament and a leader of Aliyev's New Azerbaijan party.
Serves as minister under the "List of 18" exception which allows 15
percent of deputies to hold executive posts concurrently with
parliamentary duties. Address: Ministry of Press and Information, No.
12 A. Karayev St., Baku. Tel: (994 12) 92-67-47, 92-93-33.
At 25, Gunduz M. Tairli is a chain - smoking, ink - stained journalist.
His face is angular; his expression intense. He is also chief editor of
Azadliq, one of Baku's most popular newspapers, and the organ of the
opposition Popular Front party. Putting out Azadliq is a daily struggle
for Tairli, who labors 12 hours a day, six days a week for the
equivalent of $50 a month.
A 1993 censor's log book, revealing the interplay between censors and
the cuts they made, has been circulating among Baku editors. Some
extracts from the purloined document:
³24/VIII/93
³An article cut from Azadliq. It said that S. Husseinov demanded the resignation of President Aliyev at his press conference at Ganja. If you see such information in other newspapers, cut it out immediately.
³24/VIII/93
³An article cut from Azadliq. It said that S. Husseinov demanded the resignation of President Aliyev at his press conference at Ganja. If you see such information in other newspapers, cut it out immediately.
The smell of oil, profits, and risk hang heavily over Baku. To the Western visitor, this port city looks like a boom town. Azerbaijan has discovered new oil reserves in the Caspian Sea which may be nearly as great as those of Kuwait. And outsiders are rushing to town to pump oil and get rich quick, or to service ³the oilies² who are doing the pumping. Because of oil, Baku is now the most prosperous city in the Caucasus.
The collapse of Soviet-style journalism has brought a new type of
writer to the fore-youthful, enthusiastic, but often without training
or experience. A problem in Armenian journalism is the need to replace
Soviet-era training with new methods. Ruben A. Satyan says he assigns
new recruits at Vremya to senior editors for on-the-job training.
Astghik Gevorkian, chair of the refashioned Soviet-era Union of
Journalists, says journalism departments in state educational
institutions have been unable to adjust to new conditions because their
professors are holdovers from the Communist era.
Dangerous Assignments
| Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Georgia, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, OSCE, Russia, Turkey
There are two views of the press in Armenia today. The first holds that
the press is entirely free to report as it chooses. The second is that
the press is irresponsible. One thing is certain: In the absence of
censorship, Armenian officials resort to verbal pressure and sometimes
physical retribution, to knock journalists into line.
Editors of Baku's leading newspapers were thrown into turmoil in early
November 1996. The Milli Medjlis had just amended the law on mass media
to require licensing in addition to registration with the Ministry of
Justice before newspapers could begin, or continue, operating. Fourteen
chief editors of newspapers and news agencies gathered in December to
demand clarification. "We hoped for some positive changes when we heard
that parliament would consider amendments and modifications," the
editors said in a statement to the Milli Medjlis. "But we got confused
when we read the text..." The editors asked: What agency would issue
the newly required licenses? What would be the criteria? Could the
licenses be revoked?
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Caucasian republics of
Azerbaijan and Armenia have declared their desire to model themselves
after Western European societies, with free - market economies and
democratic government. But their passage from communism to a new social
order has been rife with contradictions. In the current transition
period, leaders of both countries display authoritarian tendencies,
resulting in an ambiguous and sometimes surreal climate for the media:
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