Ibrahim Mammadli, the Chairman of the Control and Revision Committee, said during the 4th Congress of Azerbaijani Journalists being held in Baku that 30 media sources have been expelled from the Press Council of the Country.
According to him, these measures have been taken towards those media sources that repeatedly violated the rules of the journalism professional ethics. Document for expelling other 20 media sources from the Press Union have already been prepared and even submitted to the leadership of the Council by the Control and Revision Committee.
34 decisions have been taken during the meetings. 602 written and 718 written appeals have been received by the Press Council. 400 out of them were sent with a purpose, however, most of them had nothing with mass media.
Mr. Mammadli said that the technical base of the Press Council was insufficient. The Council is suffering the lack of employees. According to him, the Press Council does not have its own office, and up to now, their meetings have been held in the Baku International Press Centre. He also said that most members of the Council have not fully paid their membership fee. In 2003, only 9% out of the members paid their fees, 19,5% - in 2005, and 20% - in 2006. In 2006, the amount of the membership fees received by the Union reached 3,277 AZN, however the debt exceeds 17,000 AZN. Mr. Mammadli said that the total amount of the wage of all the employees of the Council (8,800 AZN) was paid only at the expense of grants of international organizations due to the lack of own funds. Up to date, the employees of the Press Council received the debt on the salaries for 2003-2004.