Editor's note: Updated after second paragraph
Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.22 / Trend, K.Zabaliyeva /
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was awarded with "Journalists' Friend" as a result of 2010, the Azerbaijani "RUH" Committee for Protection of Journalists said.
From Dec. 1 to 20 this year, the Committee held a survey in the media outlets and journalistic organizations to define the winner of the award "Journalists' Friend".
81 percent of the respondents considered that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev deserves the prize "Journalists' Friend". According to the results of the survey, President of Azercell Telekom LLC Ali Aghan took the second place with 6 percent of votes, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies Ali Abbasov the third place with 5 percent of votes.
About 30 daily, 19 weekly newspapers, 2 magazines, 11 information agencies, 13 journalist organizations, 8 information portals, 7 TV and 3 radio channels participated in the survey. The daily newspapers, TV channels and information agencies were given two questionnaires, other media outlets and journalist organizations were given one questionnaire. The respondents were asked to answer the question "Which public, political figure, official do you consider the friend of journalists in 2010?".
According to the regulations of the prize, the persons having special merits in the development of media can become laureates.
The main aim of instituting the prize "Journalists' Friend" is to improve the principles of freedom of expression and information in the society, assist in strengthening the relations of media with state bodies, private organizations, public unions and political parties.
The prize, which was instituted in 1997, was last presented to Heydar Aliyev in 2002.