Posted: 17 November 2010
Location: Azerbaijan & Worldwide
“All nationwide TV channels [in Azerbaijan] allotted much more airtime to the ruling YAP chairman, President Ilham Aliyev, rather than election issues and activities of registered candidates…” – excerpt from the Azerbaijan media coverage report.
As part of its Action plan to support the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in 2010, the Council of Europe organised monitoring of the media coverage of the election campaign.
The monitoring by the Media Monitoring Institute was aimed at assessing how the media performed their role by offering objective and balanced information on election issues and whether candidates received fair and equitable coverage as well as access to the media.
Since 7 October 2010 the content of eight nationwide TV channels and six daily newspapers had been monitored.
“All nationwide TV channels allotted much more airtime to the ruling YAP chairman, President Ilham Aliyev, rather than election issues and activities of registered candidates. AzTV leads the list in this regard. All of the TV channels aired Ilham Aliyev in a positive manner and rarely in neutral way” – states the report.
The November 7 elections to Azerbaijan’s parliament ended with a majority for the ‘Yeni Azerbaijan’ Party, headed by President Ilham Aliyev.
‘Yeni Azerbaijan’ took 71 of the 125 seats in Azerbaijan’s single-chamber parliament.
Ahead of Azerbaijan’s Parliamentary elections, Media Diversity Institute joined ten other organisations in launching a report about deteriorating media environment in Azerbaijan, and as part of the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan, participated in a three-day freedom of expression mission to Azerbaijan from 7-9 September 2010.
Related articles:
Azerbaijan: Free Expression under Attack
MDI participates in Freedom of expression mission to Azerbaijan
