"Reporters without Borders": Azerbaijani media are not objective in informing about presidential candidates

The mass media funded from the state budget do not allow Azerbaijani voters to have a complete idea about presidential candidates and make a proper choice when voting. This is the main conclusion made on October 15 after a month-long monitoring of three TV-channels and four newspapers by the international organization in defence of the press named "Reporters without Borders".

The monitoring covered the AZTV (state television), OTV (public television) and ANS (private TV-channel) and state-owned newspapers "Azerbaijan", "Republic", "Khalg" and "Baku Worker".

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that the final conclusions were presented at today's press conference by Elsa Vidal, head of the branch of the "Reporters without Borders" for the countries of former USSR.

She has noted that all the above media failed to cover the activities of the opposition who decided to boycott the election. The TV-channels and papers made no analysis of candidates' platforms and their presentations on television. At the same time, the AZTV gave 44.14 percent of all broadcasting time to the incumbent President Ilham Aliev. And his direct speech has taken 68.84 percent of the total direct speech on air.

The final report contains recommendations that the Electoral Code should have a provision about equal and fair access to mass media for all the candidates; the coverage of the work of the incumbent President should not dominate the electoral campaign: it should be on equal terms with other candidates; other candidates should be covered by author's programmes, etc.

The presidential election in Azerbaijan will take place tomorrow, on October 15.

Seven candidates are in a race for presidency: incumbent President Ilham Aliev, head of the "Eni Azerbaijan" Party; former head of the Supreme Medzhlis of the Party "People's Front of Azerbaijan Gulamgusein Alibeili; leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party Fuad Aliev; MP and leader of the "Umid" (Hope) Party Igbal Agazade; MP and leader of the Party of Great Creation Fazil Gazanfaroglu; chairman of the Party "Modern Musavat" Khafiz Gadziev; and MP and chairman of the Party of the United People's Front of Azerbaijan Gudrat Gasanguliev.