{"id":184483,"date":"2017-05-23T12:51:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T12:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/article\/being-a-journalist-in-azerbaijan\/"},"modified":"2017-05-23T12:51:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T12:51:08","slug":"being-a-journalist-in-azerbaijan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/being-a-journalist-in-azerbaijan\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a Journalist in Azerbaijan"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/az\/gunel-movlud-illustrasiya\/\" alt=\"G\u00fcnel M\u00f6vlud (ill\u00fcstrasiya)\" class=\"wp-image-79558\"\/><figcaption>\n    G\u00fcnel M\u00f6vlud (ill\u00fcstrasiya)<br \/>\n  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\n  Once a female journalist friend of mine was covering a story about how young girls try to evade school.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  She needed to interview some parents in order to get a closer look at the problem. She looked a long time, but nobody agreed to give her an interview.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  I tried helping her, and I offered her to conduct an interview with one of my relatives who had an 11-year-old girl. I called my relative, and this is the discussion that took place between us:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cAunt, there is a journalist that would like to do an interview with the parent of a schoolgirl. Would you be willing to give her an interview?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWho is she, what should I talk about?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cShe is a journalist, a friend of mine. Will you talk to her about the expenses of putting a girl through school, the problems associated with it\u2026?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cHow much money is she going to pay me?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cAunt, there is no payment for an interview.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cHmm, my girl, we are very poor, you know. I feel shy. I don\u2019t want her to see our home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cYou can come to the office, it is close to your home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI am tired, and would need to take two buses in order to get there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cI will give you the money for a taxi. I can come pick you up.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThat would work, but I can\u2019t leave my child at home. I have to take her with me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cThen take her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cNo, my girl, she doesn\u2019t have the proper clothes. Let me bring her, maybe your friend can give some money for some new clothes for her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cOK, aunt, thank you. We don\u2019t need the interview. We will find someone else.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cYou think someone will talk to you for free? None of us are rich. Why should I come and talk for free? What kind of profit can I get out of this?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWhatever\u201d, I said. \u201cGoodbye.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  I hung up.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  This is not the first nor the last incident of the sort that I have come across. It has happened many times \u2013\u00a0respondents ask for money in exchange for their participation. Even if they don\u2019t ask for money, after you go through with the interview and their name appears in a paper, they call you up or show up and demand that the report be taken down from the site.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It would seem one needs superhuman powers to make people talk in Azerbaijan. And then if you do find someone, getting them to speak succinctly and to the question is an entirely different struggle.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  And I\u2019m not even talking about those in power, either.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The most trying element of this line of work in Azerbaijan is that people still do not have enough information about the internet, about media outlets and reporting in general.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWhy did you take a photo of my wife?\u201d, \u201cWill it be uploaded to the internet?\u201d, \u201cWhat are you asking, suggesting that I have an interview with you? My husband will be very angry!\u201d, \u201cYou are covering this issue and you will be payed \u2013 but me, nothing? What is my gain here?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  These are but some of the questions once can come up against in requesting an interview.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Journalists in Azerbaijan already work under such difficult circumstances \u2013\u00a0distrust, opportunism and disdain face journalists in every element of their work.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  And the \u2018law\u2019 seems to be after them as well.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Of course, there are those who are willing to help and happy to be interviewed. Even some officials.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  But most journalists, feeling discouraged by the onslaught of issues one faces in this profession in Azerbaijan, leave the field \u2013\u00a0or are imprisoned or face other serious issues.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Those that remain behind \u2013 those that remain independent and honest in their reporting \u2013\u00a0are the partisans. The partisans of journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once a female journalist friend of mine was covering a story about how young girls try to evade school. I tried to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":79558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-op-ed","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Being a Journalist in Azerbaijan - MEYDAN.TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meydan.tv\/en\/article\/being-a-journalist-in-azerbaijan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Being a Journalist in Azerbaijan - MEYDAN.TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once a female journalist friend of mine was covering a story about how young girls try to evade school. 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