EURONEWS DECLINES IN QUALITY SHOWING PARTIALITY TO AZERBAIJAN

HULIQ
onews-declines-quality-showing-partiality-azerbaij an
Feb 5 2010
SC

Refugees and internally displaced people deserve media coverage
wherever they are. Newsmakers, like Euronews, have the calling to bring
the refugee problems to the forefront of political and decision-making
minds. When this is done it’s commendable, but when it’s done showing
partiality to one side such as Azerbaijan and totally ignoring the
hundreds of thousands of refugees in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh
due to the same conflict started by Azerbaijan, it’s deplorable.

On February 1 of 2010 Euronews showed a one-sided and very partial
coverage of refugee situation in Azerbaijan. Called Forgotten
Victims of a Frozen Conflict it displays the good life of refugees in
Azerbaijan, who receive $500 euros a month per person, and mentions
nothing about hundreds of thousands of the truly forgotten refugees
in Armenia.

Euronews, the flagship news organization in the European Union, can’t
help the situation by portraying Azerbaijan with its eight million
population as the victim and Armenia with its 3.5 million population
as the aggressor. Many people from around the world have raise their
voice against the approach Euronews has employed in its coverage
of refugees in Azerbaijan. Below is the letter of Rouben Galichian
to the news editor of Euronews about this coverage. Galichian is a
London based cartographer and the author of "The Invention of History".

Mr Peter Barabas The News Editor Euronews Lyon

Dear Mr Barabas,

On February 01 you aired a report entitled "Forgotten victims of a
frozen conflict" about the Azeri refugees from Karabagh.

Regrettably the report presented one side of the story only, that of
the Azeri refugees, who for the last 15 years have been kept in refugee
camps and railway cars simply for the reason of political propaganda.

In spite of the millions of petro-dollars pouring into the country,
the Azeri authorities have chosen to keep these poor people in the
worst possible condition, in order to use them as a propaganda tools.

Compare this situation with that of Armenia. Prior to the conflict
almost 400,000 Armenians lived and worked in Azerbaijan, who were
first subjected to pogroms (Sumgait, Feb 1988) and then expelled
from their homes and country overnight. Yet Armenia, who had only a
years ago experienced a devastating earthquake and did not have the
financial resources of Azerbaijan either, managed to house those who
wished to stay in Armenia.

I am not delving into the details and the origins of the conflict,
which was started by the Azeri government, when, after decades of
repression, the Armenians of Karabagh (who constituted 85% of the
population) tried to express their complaints and wishes, only to be
met by Azeri bombs and missiles.

Furthermore, for the past 15 years the Azeri authorities have been
injecting their population with such anti-Armenian venomous propaganda,
that the new generation of Azeris really and truly believe that the
Armenians are Azeri-killing machines. , Is this the way to resolve a
conflict? This bring to mind the Nazi propaganda machine, as is also
designed to create hatred amongst nations, not political regimes.

To maintain balance and neutrality, perhaps you could send a reporter
to Karabagh to investigate and report the story from the other side
as well.

With my best regards Rouben Galichian London Cartographer and Author
of "The Invention of History" and other works on the cartography of
South Caucasus.