The recent election in Sweden provided an opportunity for visiting Azerbaijani journalists to learn about election reporting during their visit to Stockholm in October. Photo: Seymur Kazimov/AMC

Following the visit of Azerbaijani journalists to Sweden in October, all participants filed stories about the visit to the Nordic region. Read the compelling report from the Swedish capital filed by Kamal Ali.

By Kamal Ali, Azerbaijan

"… He was walking along the streets   turning  around  every now and then: he was possessed by  the fear of hearing the sound   of  brakes  behind, of  speechless goons seizing him by the arms  and taking him  to the cellar where  they would beat  him  for having dared  to insult   the Great Fuehrer. However, he kept on walking and nobody seemed to take care of him. At the newsstand he stopped  to buy the English and French  newspapers: the front pages depicted caricatured  images of Hitler  and Gering. He gave a silent laugh and immediately a feeling of fear came over him."  (From: Julian Semenov's ‘’Seventeen moments of  spring”)

These lines describing the feelings and emotions  of  professor Pleishner, who after having lived in Germany  for many  years  found himself in the streets of the Swiss capital came to my mind while I was walking no, not in Switzerland, but  in the Swedish Stockholm city. In September there were held parliamentary elections and Media Center  sent us there, seven Azerbaijani journalists,  for the purpose of studying the work  of Mass Media at the elections.

It was pretty cold in Stockholm. Cheerful and pleasant looking people  were  hurrying on errands. No crowd, no pushing one another in the underground. On the contrary,   the Swedes and Swedish emigrants readily   made   way for one another and friendly   smiled at strangers. I was deeply touched by the sight of kindergarten children making their way in single file to the park- each child was wearing a special  phosphorescent  vest for the drivers to see the children from a distance.

We met  with the local journalists, politicians and ombudsman.  Some facts were known to us before  visiting the democratic country,  the others proved to be quite shocking for the Azerbaijani journalists. For example, corruption does exist in Sweden. There  is even a stadium the  construction of which has been going on for a year and yet has not been completed. But the editor-in-chief   of the  “Focus” journal who had told us about the peculation of the construction money proudly noted: “ corruption exists, but journalists do reveal all such cases and the government ,in its turn,  harshly punishes  peculators”.  

There even exists street crime in Sweden and the same editor-in-chief   telling us about the powerful gang of Swedish bikers confessed that they had held a discussion as to   either  to  write about that gang  or  to take certain  safety precautions.  And the staff   arrived at a conclusion that the life of journalists is much worthier since no  one  would   be able to protect the editorial office from the acts of  vandalism committed by bikers.

But what struck us most was the complete absence of any observers at the Swedish   elections. There is no need  for  them, since  they have nothing to monitor and control. If violations do take place at  polling stations they are of accidental character- some ballots have been placed too close to the voters than the others and the party indignated by this demands the ballots be rearranged. Or while counting the votes the ballots have been put in the wrong folder and  the party demands election results  be recounted. However, even  in the absence of complaints election results are always recounted three times.

The fact that   the October elections in Azerbaijan were monitored by more than one and a half thousand observers  was proudly proclaimed on television  by Mazahir Panakhov, head of the Central  Electoral Committee.

We visited the parliament of Sweden- Richstag under which walls the local   xenophobia fighters held their  rallies. In September the Swedish nationalists won the parliamentary   elections which sparked protests by   antinationalists  who are free to hold them wherever they want. And no one ever   prevents them from doing so.

Again I remembered poor Pleishner  …

Rahib Kazimli, former reporter of the  “Yeni Musavat” newspaper, came to visit us  in  the hotel on our third day in Stockholm. He was among those who  fled from Azerbaijan  right after the presidential elections in 2003 after it had become obvious  that all the  participants of night disturbances in Baku would be jailed for a long time.

The political émigré  who had not worked  even a single day in Sweden came in a new “ Volvo”. The Swedish government pays for whatever the emigrant may wish including recreation for his family   and salary of the Azerbaijani language teacher for the children of the national community. We arrived at his flat the size people of middle class buy in Baku. We ate dolma, Azerbaijani plov, drank well and I proposed a toast  to Ilham Aliyev, thanks to whom Rahib  and his family live in a rich, just and democratic  country without thinking of returning to the refugee dormitory in Baku ( Rahib was born in Fizuli). The  political émigré and his friend – family guest  politely  rejected my idea and assured me that I could write about  them whatever I wanted. In Sweden they have   nothing to be afraid of.

And again I remembered   professor Pleishner’s  worries …

by Kamal Ali