Azerbaijani President expresses regret over media preference to sensations

Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 31 / Trend S. Aliyev /

Unfortunately, the negative news is in the foreground in the world media, including Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during the opening ceremony of the Third Baku International Humanitarian Forum today.

"The preference is given to sensations, disasters and terror acts. While reading the news, it seems as if the world is on fire, there are clashes, wars, explosions and terror everywhere," the President noted.

"However, many wonderful, positive events also happen in the world," the President said. "Unfortunately, they are slightly in the background."

He went on to add that it is the responsibility of the media representatives.

"If we want to strengthen the cooperation and inter-civilization dialogue in the world, we must use all opportunities," Ilham Aliyev underscored.

The President believes that the positive events in the world must become major topics in the media, otherwise the information will be one-sided.

"Of course, politicians can not interfere in this issue," he said. "There are free media outlets in Azerbaijan. Any intervention is out of the question. As a citizen, I wanted to share my thoughts and I believe that the media responsibility will gradually increase. Therefore, I believe that responsible approach would be beneficial for everybody."

According to the Head of State, the urgent issues of media in the globalizing world will be discussed within the Humanitarian Forum, which by itself is a very interesting topic.

"I know that there are various opinions in connection with this issue and they are very different. On one hand, we live in the era of Internet and this is our biggest advantage. I should stress that the Internet is completely free in Azerbaijan and 70 percent of our population are internet users. In this case, the main condition is the development of free media," Ilham Aliyev said.

"On the other hand, there is great influence of news in the globalizing world. Every word anywhere can cause immediate resonance. Today, people get more news through the Internet. The responsibility of politicians, media representatives and public figures is on the foreground," he underscored.