I. Introduction This master’s thesis represents study of female newspaper and magazine editors in Azerbaijan based on Western and Soviet definitions of journalism with explanation of local national features of this p

III.2.3 Union of Azerbaijan Journalists and its place among journalists

This subchapter is dedicated to the answering the research question was: what are the stances of female editors towards journalistic professional organizations? In the course of the subchapter I.2.1 Journalism – profession or craftsmanship we looked at scholar thought that over the years tried to resolve if journalism can be classified as a profession. In our excursion to sociology, we described attributes that any long-lasting activity needs to present if it aspires to be considered as a profession. One of the points in our checklist was organization that provides licensing, testing of competence and educating its members, as well as punishes deviants from codes of professional behavior. In subchapter 1.4 Azerbaijani editors we also revisited results of our 2008 research with editors of twelve largest statewide distributed daily newspapers and above everything else, mentioned that Azerbaijani journalists lack universally accepted professional organizations since there are many organizations that claim to represent interests of journalists. The same is true for female journalist organizations. Among the noteworthy catch-all organizations are the Union of journalist of Azerbaijan and the Press Council (Valiyev 2008). In this subchapter we will look at stances of female editors towards professional organizations in Azerbaijan.

As it was mentioned above, there are two professional organizations in Azerbaijan that have threshold to influence journalistic community and stand out in a polarized spectrum of organizations saturating needs of different journalistic factions: the Union of Journalists of Azerbaijan and the Press Council. History of the Journalists’ Union dates back to early 40s of 20^th century when it started its existence as a local branch of a larger organization – the Journalists Union of the USSR.
In previous subchapters we have established that majority of female editors studied and started their journalistic career well before collapse of the Soviet Union and many of them were members of the Union. Yet the independence era brought new realms to which the Union was unable to adapt and lost attachment to its members. The organization continued to exist on inertia of its late authority slowly decaying in terms of power to enforce professional ethics or discipline upon growing journalistic community. Some of experienced female journalists noted that even though there is a negative shift in the status and authority of this professional organization in comparison with the Soviet past, its existence is still important.

Relevant here is for example answer of editor-in-chief F.X. that became a member of the Union in the 70s right after finishing her journalistic education:

You know I am their member but for a long time have no relations with them. They still have the name but no one knows what their activities are. I don’t feel their presence or get any help or an invitation from their side. If I accidently bump into their chairman he probably even will not know me. I have more connections with the Writer’s union or the Press Council than with the Journalists’ Union even though I remember that I had to pass examination by 7-8 people in order to become its member in the 70s, right after I have finished the university. I remember how much I valued that membership and how proudly I wore a pin with a pencil that they gave to me. I was flying with joy that I became member of the Journalists’ Union, the Soviet Journalists Union back then. But it is all gone now and today I sometimes even hesitate to say that I belong to this profession.

One of the stances that we cannot afford to omit is the stance that a professional organization must assist journalists in solving their existential problems and provide financial care. Among the greatest deeds of the Union female editors first of all distinguished financial support for journalists. A.S. editor in chief of semi-independent newspaper says:

During the last two years there are a lot of things written and said about this organization. Of course, it should be noted that Mr. Mushvig [chairman of the Union] many times brought up spotlight on issues of journalists’ social and apartment problems. Thank goodness, the President assigned 5 million manats that will be used to build houses for journalists but after that decision the issue disappeared from the agenda. Wouldn’t be it nice if member-journalists could, like in other professional organizations of this sort, go free of charge to sanatoriums for medical treatment or could rest via some putyovka in foreign countries?

The notion of financial support expectation was also in the spotlight of three other editors S.X., S.S. and I.T. that are members of the organization and all three represent semi-independent newspapers in our research. In general we can summarize their answers under the statement made by I.T.:

I am a member of the Union and currently there are no advantages to it. You know, previously, and I am talking about the Soviet times membership in the Journalist’s Union allowed journalists to go to sanatoriums or get cheap putyovkas or in case of illness to get cheap medical treatment. Now there is nothing of that. But I should note that existence of such organization is really important and the whole world accepts it as a universal norm. In general, we lost what we have had and now will have to build it up again. Sorry to say, but in our country in many things we are inventing bicycles again, even though we already had it right.

At the same time, female editors do not constitute homogeneous camp in their evaluation of professional organizations. Some editors like for example R.S., N.X. or U.A. – the editor-in-chief of Parliament-sponsored magazine have an ambivalent stance where at one hand they are skeptical of any particular benefits that the membership in such organizations grants and at the same moment express cautious belief in importance of the Union’s existence. Here is the stance of U.A. regarding the matter: