Activity Details (ID# 4583)

Activity Synopsis

The workshop followed on from a training carried out in October 2003. It was preceded by an Electoral Training Workshop held in the same week, organised by the Venice Commission in co-operation with the Directorate General of Human Rights, and the Central Electoral Commission of Azerbaijan. That workshop included participants of the central electoral commission, members of lower electoral commissions, judges dealing with election matters, representatives and delegates of political parties and candidates, election observers, and media.

The workshop was intended for journalists from Azerbaijani State Television currently covering the Azerbaijani Presidential Election campaign and others who would be involved in coverage closer to polling day on 15 October 2003. The main objective was to give the participants an understanding of the way in which election campaigns are covered by major broadcasters across the world. Ensuring that there was an awareness of the principles of fairness and equality, which are paramount when reporting elections. It was also the intention for the participants to appreciate the key aim of all election reporting; to convey to the electorate the right kind of information about the policies being advocated by individual candidates in order to enable them to make a valued judgement before casting their vote. 

The technical facilities at the station were acceptable although the workshop was conducted in a lecture theatre when a conference room with a central desk would have been more appropriate, given that there was a lot of discussion during the three days.

There were not the full expectant group of twelve participants at the beginning of the workshop and individuals often had to break off to go and compile reports or to produce bulletins. This was despite assurances from the Chairman of Azerbaijani State Television and his Deputy - at a meeting two days before the workshop began - that all the named participants would be attending the workshop on all days. The Head of News was spoken to about the matter; he explained that there were tensions in the department about the number of senior journalists involved in the training seminar, at what was a demanding time in an election campaign. He said he would look into the matter and the situation did improve somewhat.

The first day was spent discussing the role of the journalist in an election campaign. This was to try to evaluate whether the group appreciated the importance of the electorate to their stories and whether they grasped the central principle of the journalist being the link between the people and the politicians.

Throughout, the seminar, daily AzTV coverage of the election was compared with BBC coverage of elections including the US Presidential Election in 2000, the UK Parliamentary Election in 2001 and the Welsh Assembly Election in 2003.

It took a long time for the participants to grasp the concept of the journalist being central to the electoral process. The main way in which this was achieved was to make them discuss the current problems facing Azerbaijan and then to try to make a connection between those problems and the election. This was intended to make them bring the electorate’s concerns to the fore rather than those of the politicians. These issues only came out when they were asked about the present problems facing their families, friends and communities.

Continued monitoring of the station’s news programmes showed no attempt to portray the election campaign in a fair and balanced way. The bulletins continued to report various meetings of the Prime Minister who is a lead candidate in the forthcoming poll. There was no coverage of any of the opposition candidates, no analysis of the state of the economy, education, healthcare or other public services. In fact, blatant electioneering by the Prime Minister was continually portrayed as news stories rather than as election coverage.

The group were shown various examples of BBC coverage of elections, pointing out coverage of specific issues, showing the main policies of different candidates/parties. They were shown examples of how to present information about the electoral process in an engaging, informative way. They were also shown how to spot the difference between major matters of state and electioneering. The discussions that followed showed that they understood the approach, but most of them felt that it was not something that could be done in Azerbaijan.
 

AzTV is currently a state-broadcaster with similar shackles to many such broadcasters across the globe. But, it is on the verge of becoming a public service broadcaster, with a bill progressing through the Azerbaijani Parliament. Editorially it should already be on that path, unfortunately, it is no-where near.

Even with the constraints of state-ownership and control there is a lot that the station could be doing to help push the national debate ahead of the Presidential Election; giving snap-shots of the economic, social and cultural climate, ensuring that all voters are aware of how and when to vote, showing fair representation of the policies of the main candidates, instead of giving just a daily digest of what the ruling party has been doing on any given day.

The media sector in Azerbaijan is deeply divided and at opposite ends of the political spectrum, AzTV needs to play a central role in trying to create a fairer, less biased media environment. This can only be achieved if the talented journalists who work there are allowed to conduct their work without political interference. This is especially true at election time.

AzTV’s main evening news bulletin is watched by more than half of the population. Therefore, it is vital that the state broadcaster adopts a Code of Conduct for its journalists during elections. Central to this would be a commitment to report the election accurately. Ideally, this should be done in agreement with all the other practitioners in the media industry in Azerbaijan, something that has been achieved in a number of other countries. But, if that were not possible, it would be a massive step forward if AzTV were to introduce its own code as part of its move to become a public service broadcaster. This would set an historic example to all other broadcasters, as well as to the print media.

Alongside this, there needs to be extensive training in television and reporting techniques for reporters and editors to bring them up to a standard close to the main international broadcasters. This would take their daily reporting away from the political digest that it is, towards something that gives truer reflection of Azerbaijan as it is today. The work should be overseen by the Council of Europe, as should any monitoring to see whether the station gives fair representation to the main political parties/blocks in the country’s Parliament in its daily news coverage.

 

Producers, Reporters and Political Commentators who work on the seven news-based programmes on Azerbaijani State Television (AzTV) 

Ashok Ahir (UK) The trainer has many years experience in BBC News and is currently responsible for a large team of political journalists in Wales.

 

Pall Thorhallsson, Administrative Officer, Media Division, DG II