Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to a program of the Voice of America (VOA) on the fictional regime created in Azerbaijan's occupied territories, and the Azerbaijani Embassy in the US sent a protest letter to the VOA management, the acting head of the press service of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend Oct. 30.
He was answering to a question on removing of the mentioned program, which was aired Oct. 18 by the VOA.
The VOA Director David Ensor's response included apologies for this program, Hajiyev said.
He said it was noted that the program escaped from the editorial staff's checking, and Ensor acknowledged that the program doesn't meet the standards of unbiased and impartial journalism.
Hajiyev added that the response also said the video will be removed from the website of VOA's Armenian service and a corresponding amendment will be soon posted on the webpage.
"All this has already been done. In the letter, David Ensor expressed regret that the video violated the standards that the VOA is basing on. It was also noted that in the future such cases will be stopped," Hajiyev added.
The video was in fact removed from the website of the VOA's Armenian service and the following information in the Armenian language was posted:
"On Oct. 18, 2014, the Armenian office of the Voice of America posted on its website a 10-minute video about the Nagorno-Karabakh, which doesn't meet the standards of unbiased journalism of the Voice of America. We regret the violation of our standards and assure that the Armenian office of the Voice of America will continue to operate as a reliable and authoritative source of information."
Previously, Hajiyev said the removed program pushed to promote separatism, occupation and aggression.
He said the program, which didn't take into account and didn't reflect the position of Nagorno-Karabakh's Azerbaijani community, as well as the refugees and IDPs expelled from their motherlands as a result of the Armenian aggression, is unfair and has a biased character.