Table of Contents I. Introduction or why to research Azerbaijan
I.3 Ethical norms and codes
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- I.3 Editors I.3.1 Editors and their functions
- I.3.3 Editors under the Looking Glass
- I.3.4 Typical Newsroom Hierarchy in Azerbaijan
- II. Research project II.1 Research purpose and research questions
- Main research question What types of editors in regard to professional standards exist in twelve largest Azeri nationwide daily newspapers Secondary questions
- II.2 Basic Concepts
- Attitude dimension
- Tittle Circulation 5 Affiliation
I.3 Ethical norms and codes Journalism ethics and ethical standards consist of principles of ethics and of good practice that help meet specific challenges faced by professional journalists on a daily basis. Such standards are compiled and are accepted by journalists as their professional "code of ethics". The basic codes appear in statements drafted by both professional journalism associations and individual print organizations. What is the reason to found a newspaper code of ethics when exists general code of ethics drafted by a journalist organization? The answer is newspaper codes like ethical codes of other professional institutions [universities, companies, etc.] serve firstly newspaper’s credibility and secondly educate newcomers. A good newspaper code promotes ethical thought and behavior within the newspaper, showing newcomers where the landmines are and reminding veterans of the newsroom's values and norms. It also justifies journalists' activities to the public at large, especially during times of diminished credibility and intensified public scrutiny. (Steele- Black 1999) In 2003 Azerbaijan’s Press Council has finished consultations and subsequently adopted code of ethics of Azerbaijan journalists. Though the process of drafting, debating and implementing the codes has a grieve importance it is necessary to state that only few press outlets in Azerbaijan have given value to these efforts. Even influential and well-financed newspapers of Azerbaijan did not show interest in working out their in-house codes. Press Council’s code is comprised of four principles each given its own section where are listed basic "do's and don’ts," salted with an occasional element on the decision-making process presented in a paternalistic tone. The first principle covers such issues as factuality and objectivity. The first section stresses that objectivity is primary criterion of professionalism. In this section journalist is urged to separate facts from opinion, provide balanced news and in case of dispute give other side an opportunity to express their point of view. The second principle covers work with sources where it stresses that journalist must name his source unless that does not contradict source’s wish. The source may be revealed only if provided information to cause instability in the society. Also the code urges journalists to check information provided by their sources before publishing it. And then interestingly, the code requires journalist in case of an interview submit ready material to respondent for an authorization and consent to publish it. Third principle is the most extensive in the code and is dedicated to protection of honor and dignity and private life of citizens. There Azerbaijani journalists are called not to discriminate people in their articles on bases of sex, race, nationality, color, profession, religion or place of their birth and not to publish these details if not necessary. It also covers privacy of private correspondence and also such issues as coverage of catastrophes, natural disasters and mass murders where journalists are asked not to show faces and call names of victims unless they are celebrities. According to the same principle man is not guilty unless is proven in court otherwise and media should respect that while covering court trials and criminal issues. The last principle stipulates relationship of media to outer world. Thus the first passage of the code warns that accepting presents, or free services harms credibility of journalists and their outlets. Then Press Council calls journalist to leave all activities aside journalism that may harm their credibility and directly advises them to reject an assignment if they believe that it contradicts journalistic ethics. Few words are also dedicated to protection of secrets, unless of course they do not contradict laws of Azerbaijan Republic. The code prohibits journalists to distribute information to other outlets without consent of their superiors. The last paragraph is dedicated to plagiarism and use of Azerbaijani language Surprisingly, majority of influential newspapers are satisfied with briefness of this codex. Only two of selected influential nationwide daily newspapers – Gun Seher and Bizim Yol decided that Press Council’s code does not satisfy their needs and accepted their own internal codes. Yet Bizim Yol was not too creative and added only one extra principle to existing four from the code of the Press Council. They named it Principle of Responsibility and Engagement. This fifth principle serves journalists of Bizim Yol as a rule for working with anonymous sources. Thus if a source wishes to remain unidentified journalist’s duty is to collect audio, video or other documents that can prove that they in fact received such information. Besides journalist must ensure that the source is ready to testify in court in case if the newspaper is drawn into court battle or is about to be prosecuted. Thus in short these two codes deal with conflict of interest, which includes issues ranging from accepting gifts and travel junkets to political involvement, have advises on how to deal with sources and matters of manipulation with photographs, corrections and plagiarism. The code provides standards for privacy, deception, identification of juvenile suspects, and tragedy victims. Yet, the most extensive out of three codes has Gun Seher newspaper. Their position is that carefully written code highlights and anticipates ethical dilemmas so editors and journalists don't have to loose time with discussions in dilemmatic situations. The code’s preamble states: All correspondents, editors, photographers and other staff members of this newspaper uphold with honor the clean name of this newspaper and share all values and professional principles as one. All our efforts are directed on promoting influence and credibility of the newspaper. We will not do anything what could jeopardize this influence and credibility and do our work seriously and responsibly. We consider pluralism and diversity to be important values for society and that is why constantly search different points of view and submit them to our readers. We are sincere to our readers and do our best to deliver only truth. Not depending on the field we are working we never forget our responsibility: our activity cannot besmirch name of our newspaper, it cannot jeopardize its independence, fairness and neutrality. The code of Gun Seher includes all mentioned above principles plus meticulously covers such issues as how to enforce the code, how to deal with readers, advertisers, competitors. The last one due to situation in Azerbaijan is very interesting since the code specifically prohibits getting in the fight in case of hostile article in competing newspaper. Newspaper is competing with other information outlets. This competition must be always conveyed on the basis of honor, justice and professional behavior. Member of the newspaper staff cannot besmirch and diminish work of members of other outlets. In case of using facts courtesy of other media outlet must always support them. Moreover, the code of Gun Seher provides basic guidelines for its journalists how to behave when covering certain sensitive issues for example elections, court trials, tragedies, health issues or opinion surveys. Here we will provide just a glimpse of this remarkable work. Guidelines for working with health issues:
The code also covers such issues as internal newspaper discipline and obedience. It is interesting that Bizim Yol and Gun Seher both have internal ethical codes. However, Gun Seher having throughout code never been driven to court like was Bizim Yol on the basis of a defamation lawsuit. I.3 Editors I.3.1 Editors and their functions The following research has scrutinized editors of the 12 largest Azeri nationwide newspapers. But what does an editor do and what are his functions? Typically, large newspaper has hierarchy that includes multiple editorial positions. Raw material comes to junior editorial assistant that evaluates it and sends upwards to senior executive editor that gives material its final finish. Senior-level editors and rubric directors subordinate to a senior executive editor also called editor-in-chief. Person holding this position in newspaper hierarchy is responsible for general content of the newspaper, sets newspaper standards and manages newspaper staff policy, develops and maintains newspaper budget. In other words, an executive editor is responsible for strategic and operational planning of a newspaper. Thus, executive editors, as well as their deputies play a pivotal role and have a grave importance for the correct functioning of the system – called newspaper. Position of an editor emerged in Azerbaijan in 19th century with its final development after installment of the Soviet regime in Azerbaijan in 1920s. During that period almost all newspaper reporters and editors had to be members of the Union of Journalists of Azerbaijan linked to the Union of Journalists of the Soviet Union. Both structures were controlled by the Communist Party and inevitably, all actions of editors had to be approved by local party authorities. Editors-in-chief were the corner stone of the newspaper functioning since they bore sole responsibility in front of higher instances for newspaper content leaving only a fragment of decision freedoms to section editors. Thus, inside of the Soviet media system the real decision making was concentrated in hands of an editor-in-chief with his/her deputy along with other editors mainly stripped of that power. Though, the system has suffered major blows due to the wave of nationalism in the late 80s and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the principle continues to thrive in newspapers that remained under management of the “old school” professionals. Though, position of an editor-in-chief is a managing position where the editor is rather a director of a factory than journalist, in Azerbaijan, it is quite usual that the most active journalist in the newspaper is the editor-in-chief. It is not an exception that a publisher or his representative in Western media excluded from newspaper hierarchy are appointing themselves an editor-in-chief with all work however, done by deputy managing editor who becomes a grey eminence, unofficial editor-in-chief of the newspaper. I.3.3 Editors under the Looking Glass How do journalists work was meticulously researched in 1971 by American sociologists Slawsky and Bowman, they took farther research of Weaver and Wilhoit “American Journalist.” In 1986 they defined typology of journalists on the basis of their stances towards journalism and the role of media. The derived typology is as follows: adversarial – counterpart of government or financial structures; interpretive – analysis and search for explanation of events [politics for example]; disseminator – spreading of information. The results also showed that American journalists are more satisfied with their jobs than are others professionals thought that satisfaction had a tendency to a steady decrease. Very important research to understand transformation process among journalists of a post-Soviet state was implemented in Czech Republic by scholars Jaromir Volek and Jan Jirak (2002-2005). The research showed that though Czech Republic already finds itself on the final stage of democratization process its media still are in the period of transformation. Volek notes that old school journalists massively left the profession while new generation does not answer or answers conditionally to terms of professionalization described by Hallin and Mancini (Volek 2007). Another important research concerning Czech journalists presents research “Ethical World of Czech journalists” by Eva Souhradova that specifically studied Czech editors and instead of following steps of Slawsky and Bowman that did not include the group of editors-in-chief and their deputies proposes her own typology of editors. The qualitative research scoped stances of 22 editors working in Czech newspapers, TV stations and radio and provided simple typology consisting of two categories: ethical idealists and ethical rationalist (Souhradova 2002). Though the research was first of its kind, never the less it is necessary to note that in our opinion the typology possessed deficiency since was constructed on declarative answers of selected editors concerning journalism ethics and did not take in regard possible cynical or hypocritical answers. More of a value to the discourse of this work presents work of Russian scholar Svetlana Juskevits Professional Roles of Contemporary Russian Journalists (2001) where she researches young and old generations of Russian journalists, their habits and preferences and devises a typology of modern Russian journalists. I.3.4 Typical Newsroom Hierarchy in Azerbaijan Newspapers of Azerbaijan have a distinctive feature; their current circulation numbers are unbelievably low in comparison to the first years of the Independence. If during the first years of Azerbaijani statehood, some newspapers had circulation as high as 150,000 copies per day now the highest circulation is equal to 11,000 copies [Yeni Musavat newspaper]. Newspapers have problems with per-copy sales and do not gain enough profit from advertising since firms and companies in Azerbaijan seem to be reluctant to advertise themselves partially due to high level of grey economy. The above mentioned circumstances lead newspapers [with an exception of government funded newspapers] to have small staff sometimes as low as 5-6 journalists and heavily rely on freelancers or wires. In this section we will present structure of three newspapers that represent typical hierarchy among pro-government, pro-opposition and independent newspapers. 
Newspaper Zerkalo was founded by group of journalists in 1991 and is the flagship of independent newspapers in Azerbaijan. In 2001 a conflict erupted between two key editors that established the newspaper and led to partial defection of Zerkalo staff to a newly established Echo newspaper that became a duplicate of Zerkalo in its structure and more slightly in content. The ultimate authority in the newspaper belongs to editor-in-chief Elchin Shikhli who works in media since 1989. He has two deputies managing editor that along with secretary editor run Zerkalo’s daily edition. On the weekends however, Mr. Shikhli personally edits Saturday-Sunday edition of the newspaper. The work is usually done by him in cooperation with the secretary editor. The hierarchy of Zerkalo has no strict bureaucratic separations of responsibilities and duties however there is a strict authority of editor-in-chief. As it was mentioned earlier Zerkalo is a flagship of independent newspapers in Azerbaijan and thus its hierarchy is duplicated by other independent and semi-independent newspapers. 
Yeni Musavat newspaper is the flagship of oppositional press. Established in 1990 the newspaper enjoyed high popularity and circulation numbers during the first years of independence. Yet political climate change set the process of its circulation’s steep demise where it founds itself today. Starting 1994 the newspaper was a constant figurant of various lawsuits and fines that resulted in its temporary bankruptcy and closure. Rauf Arifoglu editor-in-chief of Yeni Musavat has spent several months in jail as well as was detained and fined on many occasions. Thus the newspaper had to come up with an interesting structure where instead of deputies to managing editors editor-in-chief of YM has a board of four editors that supervise and edit daily editions. The board or any of its members can replace the editor-in-chief in case of force major situation. 
 Newspaper Azerbaijan is the oldest newspaper on the territory of the republic. Established in 1918 during the first democratic republic it leaved through the Soviet period and transformed into a official newspaper of Azerbaijani Parliament nowadays. This government newspaper has strict bureaucratic division between departments and their staff and enjoys high number of reader subscriptions.3 Each department has its own resort and its functions are clearly separated from others. Azerbaijan represents the newspaper with the strongest authority of editor-in-chief.
II. Research project II.1 Research purpose and research questions For the past 17 years of media development no serious academic effort was directed to study the journalist community in Azerbaijan as a whole and the managing elite in particular.4 During the above mentioned period there were few publications based on surveying journalists, however, discarding any attempt to analyze three key actors of agenda setting process - editor-in-chief, assistant of managing editor and an editor. Uneasy decade marked by the Karabakh war brought different individuals into journalism many of whom had a poor if any understanding of basics of the journalism but nevertheless were successful in elevating to the top of journalistic hierarchy. As a result, currently Azerbaijan has two generations of the journalists - Soviet and the post-Soviet. The difference between two is in how the younger generation estimates the Soviet experience of media management and evaluates modern journalism. For instance, Russian journalists according to Parkomenko can be distinguished in two generations as representatives of two different professions: the people working with information [the post-Soviet practitioners] and the people working with themselves [the Soviet practitioners]. (Parkhomenko 2000). Today, after the 17 years of the transitional period, it seems that the Karabakh war and financial and social instability that followed it have provoked discussion on professional issues between Azerbaijani journalists. Most of the debate concentrates on subjects of political instrumentalization, parallelism that turns Azeri media into political weaponry and leaves no space for objectivity. Numerous defamation lawsuits serve a good illustration of chaos that thrives in Azeri journalist community even nowadays. Most of Azerbaijan’s editors in chief came of age in times of the Soviet Union and thus are troubled to distinguish role of media in a free market economy making newspapers dependent on contributions of political powers and driving them aside from searching ways of financial self-reliance. The obvious result is that objective journalism is still in its early infancy in Azerbaijan and journalists are mainly divided in pro-government and pro-opposition camps with the neutral camp being still undermanned. (Internews 2004). The purpose of this research is to draw attention to the key positions in the largest Azeri nationwide newspapers - editors-in-chief and their deputies and scrutinize their ethical and value orientations in order to answer the main question of this research. The researcher will focus on stances of the abovementioned individuals regarding professional ethics and ethical self-regulation in media as well as will cover the question of how do those key actors solve ethically problematic situations and evaluate their own influence in Azeri society. Another point of interest will be scrutiny of ethical norms that can serve as guidelines to the key actors for solving ethical dilemmas. Main research question What types of editors in regard to professional standards exist in twelve largest Azeri nationwide daily newspapers? Secondary questions:
II.2 Basic Concepts Each of the dimensions will be represented in loosely tied batteries of questions during the in-depth interview. Dimensions Qualities Structural dimension: Stances on importance of education in journalism and received education Self-regulation in media --- knowledge of norms --- interest in them --- application of norms in practice Stances on membership in professional organizations and their role in media --- dilemma solving Attitude dimension --- job satisfaction --- job motivation --- assessment of personal influence in the society II.2Research population Targets of the research are people who seized position of either an editor-in-chief or deputy managing editor or its equivalent secretary editor in twelve largest nationwide daily newspapers in Azerbaijan. In terms of sampling – the research employs purposive sampling. Defining the sample in terms of Azerbaijan media is probably one of the hardest tasks in the frame of the following research. As it was mentioned earlier, Azeri newspapers do not rely on revenues from sales but rather on sponsorship of certain groups in Azerbaijan society. That is why it is not possible to acquire reliable data regarding actual readership or sold copies on certain given day that makes the researcher to select twelve nationwide daily newspapers that have the largest circulation number and are sold on the whole territory of Azerbaijan republic thus having the strongest chances to influence readers situated not only in the capital city but in regions as well. The following twelve newspapers are: Tittle Circulation5 Affiliation
We may propose that those newspapers may have the strongest influence on how people perceive processes inside and outside of Azerbaijan and logically editors-in-chief and their deputies are people who actively contribute to the mass communication process and forming of social reality. Azerbaijani media are split in four categories: independent, semi-independent, oppositional and governmental. Old Soviet-school journalistic education editors congregate explicitly in governmental newspapers and attract same kind of journalists with work experience not less than 20 years making average journalist of governmental newspaper to be a man in his late 40s. The main policy in those newspapers remains the traditional postulate of Soviet journalism – adherence to the ruling political regime and party. Oppositional category editors are people who worked in local media just before the collapse of the Soviet Union or came to this profession on a wave of national awakening in late 80s and resistance towards Soviet oppression. These category unites editors with different educational background lacking however those who received journalistic one. Coming in this profession on a wave of protest against authorities these people hold the offensive policy towards current authorities and their rule. Journalists are attracted from protesting layers of Azerbaijani society usually with a membership in some of oppositional political parties. These two politically affiliated rivals are not selective in methods of achieving political goals by undermining their counterparts’ image, especially during election periods. A good example of duel between the above mentioned camps may serve a publication in oppositional newspaper Azadliq affiliated with the Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party about candidate to deputy post – Bakhtiyar Sadigov named “Bakhtiyar’s similarity to Vartan”. There authors wrote that an Armenian prefect appointed in one of occupied regions of Azerbaijan is Sadigov’s relative and they constantly keep in touch with each other on a phone. The state-run media retaliated by opening a smear campaign against Ali Kerimli, leader of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party where they insinuated that he belonged to a sexual minority. The third category is comprised by editors of independent newspapers. None of the selected editors of independent newspapers had a journalistic degree. This category is populated by people who worked in local media before the collapse of the Soviet Union and when it finally collapsed decided that they want to continue delivering news independently. Editors in this category are usually identical to publisher and act as pragmatics since independents cannot rely on sponsorship of a political actor and are dependable on newspaper sales and advertisement. That is why content of the newspapers, especially related to politics is produced as factual and balanced since editors guard their newspapers from fines and lawsuits. Under last category we list semi-independent newspapers. These newspapers constitute the most interesting for future researches category that unites editors with pragmatic oppositional or pro-government attitudes. Newspapers listed in this category officially are independent yet in reality are published or sponsored by people affiliated with one of the two sides. Editors of semi-independent newspapers are usually hired to fulfill duties and line designated by their publisher. Semi-independents reflect political views of their owner and can go from severe critique to completely conformist position with the reality.
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