European official, Azeri media chiefs, rights activists discuss
Karabakh, polls

Lider TV, Baku
22 Aug 05

[Presenter] The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe [PACE] held his first meeting with human rights activists
and mass media chiefs today.

[Correspondent over video of closed doors] The meeting held behind
closed doors focused on the situation in the run-up to the [November
parliamentary] election in the country, the participation of NGOs in
the parliamentary election and the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.

[Unidentified rights activist] He listened to us. He did not express
his opinion. He only asked us questions and we answered them.

[Rights activist Saida Qocamanli] He familiarized himself with the
situation in the run-up to the election and the problem of political
prisoners. We assess positively the work carried out in this sphere by
a [presumably, PACE] working group which has been established
recently. Moreover, we drew attention to the Nagornyy Karabakh
problem. The PACE president noted that NGOs and the public should
boost their efforts in this sphere as they are not strong enough in
Azerbaijan.

[Correspondent] The PACE president later met representatives of the
local mass media and familiarized himself with the media’s current
situation and its role in the election. Mr Rene van der Linden said he
expected the forthcoming parliamentary election to be free and
fair. He believes that normal conditions will be created for
representatives of the fourth estate to cover the process.

[Editor of Gun newspaper Arif Aliyev] The meeting initially focused on
the media issue. It was not discussed separately, but as an element of
society. They want to know to what extent the media in Azerbaijan is
independent and how much of political influence they have. As far as I
understood, they want to know the media’s reaction in case there are
some changes in the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. The media’s role in the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem was discussed individually. Naturally, the
third issue was the election and expectations in this regard. They
want to know about the media’s current resources, the level of its
preparedness for these issues and its behaviour at that time.