The Azerbaijani Press Council will expand its cooperation with the OSCE and Council of Europe. “The chairman of the Press Council of Azerbaijan met with the head of the OSCE Baku Office. Aflatun Amashov, chairman of the Council, and Ali Bilge Dzhankorel, head of the office, exchanged views on ties between the two organizations in the media, the problems of the press in Azerbaijan and ways of their solutions,” the Council told Trend News on Oct. 7.

More than 4,000 media outlets have been registered in Azerbaijan. Currently, only 600 of them are functioning. Nearly 400 newspapers and magazines are published and more than 20 television channels function. There are about 50 electronic media outlets, 20 news agencies, and the rest are the Internet resources in Azerbaijan.

Amashov spoke about how there was a need to establish the Council, activities to regulate the relationship between the media and the public, media and power. “Amashov described the experience of the Council’s cooperation with the OSCE Baku office, implemented joint activities,” the same source said.

The Head of OSCE Baku office expressed confidence that the Azerbaijani media will benefit from further mutual cooperation. “Mentioning the need to implement targeted projects, the OSCE representative said that he considers it to be important to establish working groups on specific spheres of activity,” said the Council.

Amashov also said that during today’s meeting with Veronika Kotek, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan, the initiatives to develop independent press in Azerbaijan were supported. At the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the law on defamation.”