Azerbaijan President Reminds Journalists To Report The Truth

From Nor Faridah Abd Rashid BAKU (Azerbaijan), Nov 17 (Bernama) -- Some 200 media practitioners taking part in the two-day 5th News Agencies World Congress (NAWC) which opened here Wednesday have been reminded by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev to report the truth and with responsibility in line with the media's growing role in international events. Support from news agencies and other media in the promotion of values of cooperation was very important as it would give politicians the chance to advocate universal values, he said in his address at the joint opening of the NAWC and the 16th General Assembly of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA). Aliyev explained that such support would give the chance to politicians to be more consistent and active in promoting these values because, sometimes, "what we read and what we see in the media is different from reality". "I can tell you from my personal experience. Of course, the president of any country has enough sources of correct information. But, sometimes reading or watching different international media, I find out that the same event is interpreted completely differently with respect to who is presenting this event. "Therefore, we see a lot of politically motivated coverage of the same events. Whether it is the Middle East, wars, Europe, post-Soviet area, the same event is interpreted completely differently," he said. Aliyev said he hoped that the congress, which carries the theme "New Challenges for the News Agencies", would address these important issues. "We all are in favour of the free media, we all need to have true information, especially countries like Azerbaijan that for 70 years lived in the Soviet Union where there was only one official policy, one ideology, and we did not have access to any information. "So countries like us and also other countries and people have the right to know what is really happening. I am sure that you will address these issues, and the Baku Congress will be an important step in your activity," he said. Meanwhile, Malaysian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Roslan Abdul Rahman, who attended the opening ceremony, said it was hoped that the congress could address the issues stated by the President. "Of course, there are different views but news cannot be explained some other way than what is happening there and then. Or course, we have different views and see the world in different eyes but this congress, hopefully, will address such issues. That is what the President hopes for and this is what we all hope for as well," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the congress. The topics discussed at the congress, hosted by Azerbaijan's AZERTAC news agency, included 'The Future of News Consumption', 'News Agencies - Challenges and Opportunities of New Technologies and Social Media', 'News Agency Innovation' and 'Training Journalists for a Multi-media Future'. The participants from some 80 countries, representing about 100 news agencies, included Bernama Editor-in-Chief Zakaria Abdul Wahab, Yonhap News Agency President and Chief Executive Officer Park No-Hwang, Thai News Agency Chief Editor Noraphon Pacharoen, Emirates News Agency (WAM) Executive Director Mohamed Jalal Alrayssi and Kyodo News Managing Director of the International Department Kakuya Ogata. --BERNAMA