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

I had a publication where I considered unethical the fact that there was an included photograph of parents whose child was born with development anomalies.

An interesting fact concerning extortionist journalism that was never touched upon by male editors in our 2008 research was portrayed by one of the oldest and experienced female editors M.X. that devoted 39 years of her career to her newspaper.

Don’t think that in the Soviet time it [extortionist journalism] did not exist. There was a journalist; he is dead now so I will not name him. Once I received a call from a restaurant Druzhba [Friendship] that was beneath the Kirov’s park, nowadays Martyr’s Alley. He came there, and started to write something. Administration called us and told me that he is saying that he is from “Vyshka” newspaper and does not want to tell them what he writes about. Just seats there and asks people what they have ordered and how much did they pay. We offered him, please don’t write about us, we’ll give you something but he demanded a large sum of money from us. I asked them to give the phone to him:

– Aydin, what are you doing there?

-I am writing a story.

-Who gave you that assignment? Did someone sent you there?

-No. I came on my own initiative. I received a tip about this place.

Then I told him that if he had a tip and went there to write a story he should bring it to the newspaper office and we will review it together but what was that with him wanting money? So, I want to say that it was in the Soviet times as well.

Our current inquiry brought spotlight on yet another ethical misdemeanor that was omitted in our previous research. N.M. editor of independent magazine recalls her work in the Culture ministry-sponsored newspaper :

We had a freelancer writing for us and I was printing her articles in Medeniyyet [Culture] newspaper. Once, I was approached by one of our correspondents who asked me: Nigar chanim, did you know that this girl submits the articles that we publish to other newspapers as well? And I should note that I was giving her good honoraries since I wanted to encourage her to write more, she had a “good pen”. So I called her to our office and told her to stop writing for us since I considered her actions to be a forgery that broke journalistic ethics and showed disrespect towards our newspaper.

The most common corruption of the ethical norms, however, is evidenced in a work with sources. It is not uncommon when a journalist due to different reasons uses unchecked sources of information and presents it as an unconditional truth. However, when the fabrication is discovered those responsible are treated variably in different media outlets. The strictest reaction towards responsible person portrayed the above mentioned N.M. that told interviewer about a case that cost her editor’s chair in the ministry-sponsored newspaper.

There was an article brought by a journalist or rather by a section editor who was also an editor on duty that day. He took out an edited article that was scheduled to go and inserted in that spot an unchecked one. I was sick that day and went home early relying on the section editor and deputy editor that they will look after the issue. I checked everything before I left and did not expect them to substitute articles without my consent. I was fired after they have printed that article.

This represents the only case in our research when actually someone was fired for false information in their newspaper. Editor I.T. for example admitted that she have experienced such cases and she had to apologize for the unprofessional writings of her staff. U.X. on the other hand noted that she encountered numerous misdemeanors of this sort caused first of all by inexperienced journalists but refused to reveal specifics. Several other editors preferred to state that since they worked in very professional collectives they had no problems of this kind. F.X. confessed that when she was very young journalist she had minor issues with her articles but since she loved her profession very much she managed to correct her mistakes. Very interesting can be considered reaction of N.Y. who in our research represents stances of pro-opposition journalists.

I think that you cannot use unchecked information, even if it concerns some official that is viewed by our society as very negative person the information must be checked. In case if there is an anonymous source, you should use that information only in case if you trust your source and there are sufficient serious evidences in a form of documents.

To summarize this subchapter we would like to focus reader’s attention on conclusions that we can draw based on an analysis of the selected female editors. To begin with, in the course of this section we found out evidence that female editors in their majority view professional organizations as institutions capable of enforcing professional standards and rather perceive them as bodies lobbying material subvention from the government or in case of opposition-inclined editors as means to extend political struggle against current political regime.

Focusing on the question of ethical norm creation showed that majority of female editors do not rely on journalistic organizations to create and enforce standards and act according to their best knowledge derived mainly from their experience and time spent with more mature colleagues. Farther inquiry showed that when it comes to professional organizations, none of the selected female journalists associates herself with specific female professional organizations like for example Azerbaijan Woman Journalist Association. In fact instead of such organizations female journalists seek authority in male dominated Press Council or the remnant of the Soviet past – the Azerbaijan Journalists Union. The results provided in this subchapter, allow us to state that with some minor exceptions, selected female journalists are not involved in current polarization of journalistic spectrum in Azerbaijan taking rather a stance of neutral observers. That can be caused that majority of them are experienced professionals who work either in semi-independent or state-funded but narrowly profiled newspapers and magazines.
Among interesting findings of this subchapter certainly belongs the fact that extortionist journalism has a longer tradition in Azerbaijan than it was anticipated in our 2008 research where it was labeled as a product of the independence era. Among other nuances, female editors reported that not only political polarization but also specific interests of narrow journalistic elites prevent mutual cooperation of different journalistic professional organizations. Thus, once again we are forced to state, that existing professional organizations in Azerbaijan do not fulfill their duties of controlling, testing and educating new generations of journalists resulting in farther fragmentation of the spectrum and deepening processes of deprofessionalization and proletarization of Azerbaijani journalists. In our opinion, it is evidently result of proletarization that freelance journalists sell their articles to more than one newspaper while others try to extort money by a threat of writing articles. In this situation, selected editors that have spent in some cases more than three decades in journalism take a stance of a bystander that observes current events with a sentiment of reminiscence of the old days of journalistic glory.