Structure to monitor mass media covering elections was set up in Azerbaijan

A structure to control whether the activities of mass media meet the demands of democracy at the presidential elections to come in October was set up in Azerbaijan. This was reported by Arif Aliyev, a head of the Press-Club of Baku and one of the founders of this structure, at a press-conference on Monday.

Aliyev said the observation of the activity of home TV channels showed their biased policy in the coverage of the election campaign. He expressed hope that the situation would change. Aliyev marked the project would provide press-conferences with heads of electoral headquarters of the presidential contenders, talk-shows with candidates, numerous TV and radio shows dedicated to the elections, trainings for journalists covering the elections.

The results of the monitoring will be systematically delivered to the Council of Europe and other international organizations. The program to control the coverage of the elections in mass media is brought about by the Press-Club of Baku and the humane organization "Internews" with the support of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation), the OSCE and some other foreign structures. The presidential elections will be held in Azerbaijan on October 15, 2003.