Vusala Mahirgizi: Online media plays special role in ensuring Azerbaijan’s information and national security

Vusala Mahirgizi: Online media plays special role in ensuring Azerbaijan’s information and national security
# 10 March 2018 10:29 (UTC +04:00)

Online media plays a special role in ensuring information and national security in Azerbaijan, President of APA Holding Vusala Mahirgizi said addressing the 7th Congress of Azerbaijani Journalists in Baku on March 10, APA reports.

Mahirgizi hailed online media’s special role in shaping public opinion.

She noted that the advertising market is experiencing a serious decline as a result of the global economic crisis.

“Online media consists not only of websites known to you. This should have a serious basic infrastructure, because online media clearly plays a special role in ensuring information and national security,” the APA Holding president said.

According to Mahirgizi, representatives of online media also protect the virtual borders of Azerbaijan.

“Today, countries are made up of both real and virtual societies. We [online media] are defenders of a virtual society. For this reason, there is a need for a very strong media infrastructure and technical support. And this requires a very large amount of money,” she said.

The APA Holding president backed Press Council Chairman Aflatun Amashov’s proposal to provide state support for online media. “Online media needs serious state support. The Azerbaijani state did not undertake to support independent media. This of course is our request,” she added.

She also stressed the importance of providing support in the placement of servers of local media outlets inside the country.

Mahirgizi also supported the Press Council chairman’s proposal to appeal to the country’s president for imprisoned journalists to be pardoned.

The APA Holding president also touched upon the issue of a single media card.

“I think that the Press Council should take this issue seriously, this matter must be implemented in the form of a serious certification. Naturally, it will be wrong to issue a card to each member. In some countries, these cards are issued only to certain persons in each edition. This question must find its solution. The "yellow cards" issued by the Press Council should be considered high accreditation cards,” she added.

Mahirgizi, as a member of the Board of the Press Council, thanked the participants of the congress for the value given by them to the Press Council.

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