Elshad Farzaliyer, IMS country officer for Azerbaijan on his first visit to IMS office in Copenhagen. Photo: Lotte Dahlmann/IMS

IMS has appointed a country officer for Azerbaijan to be in charge of the establishment of the Azerbaijan Media Centre, which is being set up by IMS in Baku, the capitol of Azerbaijan

When IMS opens the doors to the Azerbaijan Media Centre in mid-September this year, Elshad Farzaliyev will be greeting the visitors, as he is the newly appointed IMS country officer for Azerbaijan in charge of the daily running of the centre.

Educated a political scientist with a master from the US, 30-year old Elshad Farzaliyev comes to IMS carrying valuable experience about Azeri media from his previous jobs with international organisations operating in Azerbaijan.

The centre is much needed, he explains:

- IMS conducted a needs assessment in Azerbaijan and found that all managers, journalists and even civil society organisations called for a place, where Azeri media may come together to enhance their professional skills and discuss professional aspects of media development.

Need for development of the media sector

The media sector in Azerbaijan consists of a broad range of public, government-owned as well as private TV, radio and newspapers. With just 2-4 percent of the population of about 8 million people reading newspapers in Azerbaijan, the electronic media are by far the most popular media.

The media in Azerbaijan face a variety of problems and challenges. The recent years of economic growth in Azerbaijan has not been matched by development of the media sector which affects the professional development, distribution as well as advertisement possibilities of the media. Building of professional and unbiased reporting is one of the key challenges along with ensuring financial sustainability of the various media -especially print media.

Divided media sector

The media community is divided among many organizations, unions, NGOs and newspapers with various afiliations. Because the media sector is rather fragmented, Elshad Farzaliyev believes that the Azerbaijan Media Centre will and should be open to everybody in an effort to mobilize Azeri media and bring them together.

- Just having a meeting room available will give journalists and media practitioners an opportunity to meet and discuss, he says,

The centre is planning to offer a wide range of activities to the Azeri media, but Elshad Farzaliyev stresses, that the activities should reflect the needs of the media sector and be tailored to satisfy these needs.

One of the first initiatives, he says, will be to introduce workshops and seminars on media management skills ranging from business planning, marketing and advertisement to audience research.

- We hope to bring in expertise from countries with a more developed media sector and to offer training to those open to new ideas, says Elshad Farzaliyev.

Asked whether he thinks that Azeri media will be open to new ideas, he says:

- Azerbaijan is part of the globalized world - and we see changes in our neighbouring countries. Look at Ukraine; they have a vibrant regional media scene. And with Azerbaijan moving closer towards the EU, I am sure that journalists and media practitioners will pick up inspiration from abroad, and sooner or later this will affect the media sector in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijan Media Centre is currently looking for the right space to rent in Baku to be able to offer training facilities, meeting rooms as well as offering access to databases and ICT.