Table of Contents I. Introduction or why to research Azerbaijan

II.3 Selected methods of research and data collection in Azerbaijan
The research employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques of data aggregation with a primary technique being qualitative method of in-depth interviews. The latter allowed us to get closer to the research subjects and acquire better scope of their stances.

The second mentioned method – quantitative is represented in the research by means of a simple questionnaire. As it was mentioned earlier, representatives of the Azeri media elite where not included in previous surveys among journalists and thus as a group remained unknown.

The data collection was implemented in the period from March 10 to April 7. During this small period of time Azerbaijan for 9 days celebrated its major after the New Year holiday - Novruz Bayram or in other words Spring Holiday. Yet, due to strenuous efforts and active help of Media Forum of Internews Azerbaijan we were able to implement twenty interviews that lasted approximately an hour and five minutes and involved six editors-in-chief, thirteen deputies to managing editor and one secretary editor.

At the same time it became obvious that it is not easy to implement a research conceived and constructed in realities of Czech Republic. First difficulty that we run across was an official barrier set between newspapers and outer world in a form of policemen guarding their entrances. Newspapers Azadliq, Gun Seher and Azerbaycan are situated in a building of Azerbaijan Publishing House, an old remnant from the Soviet times. In order for us to get inside the building editors-in-chief had to issue special permit that was taken to registration office and then shown to police officers at the gates. Only after this lengthy procedure we were able to get in the building.

Second difficulty was a deeply rooted tradition of unpunctuality. Even though appointments were done ahead of time and then confirmed again some editors were turning the process of interview into a hunt for hiding in long grass ducks.

The third difficulty that jeopardized the research was situation in Azerbaijan itself. With presidential elections scheduled this year the situation remains difficult. Few days prior the start of data collection editor-in-chief of Azadliq newspaper was jailed on accusations of hooliganism and sentences to several years in prison. Journalist from the same newspaper was repeatedly stubbed with a knife in front of the Azerbaijan Publishing House and was taken to hospital with severe wounds. That made practically impossible to access Azadliq newspaper for several weeks. Only on April 4th, after waiting for our turn in waiting hall for a state investigator to leave the newspaper we were able to access deputy managing editor of Azadliq newspaper Azer Akhmedov.

The fourth difficulty was caused by the previous one. Living in a state of constant suspicion editors of oppositional newspapers were unwilling to answer on certain questions related to journalistic ethics stating that they do not want to get accused that they do not obey standards of ethics. In addition, one of the editors of government newspaper refused his interview to be voice-recorded and interview passed in an old manner of taking notes.

Yet, in spite of all these difficulties the data were collected and now are going to be unfolded and presented to you in the next chapter.

III. Empirical data and its interpretation

This part of the work will provide information on patterns of gender, education and marital status among respondents. An internal part of this paragraph is also a question on how important respondents believe high school education is for editors work as well as their stance towards education in journalism. In other words this section will allow us to map who are the people taking the highest position in the most powerful Azeri newspapers and if there are special academic requirements for entering this profession in Azerbaijan.

III.1.1 Gender, age and marital status data
Position of editor in chief and their deputies in selected media as it is obvious from the results of the research is solely male. Those positions are all taken by males in the age range from 27 to 57. There are two editors in the oldest category and both work for government newspapers. The youngest editor works in semi-independent newspaper.
Table 6: Socio-demographic characteristics of selected editors

Gender	%	N	Age	%	N	Education	%	N	Family status	%	N
Male	100	20	25–39	35	7	University degree	95%	19	Single	0%	0
Female^6	0	0	40–49	50	10	High School	5%	1	Married	100%	20
			50+	15	3
TOTAL	100	20			20		100	20		100	20

III.1.2 Education of respondents
Respondent editors all graduated from some university in Azerbaijan. Editors of selected newspapers have different educational background. Exceptions to this case are editors working in government newspapers – they are all educated journalists. With their exclusion the highest percent

among editors have graduates of political science [four editors]. One of the selected editors graduated neither from university nor from college⁷.

Table 7. Education of selected editors

Journalists^8	4
Political scientists	4
Engineers	2
Economists	2
Philologists	2
Agriculture specialists	2
Other: historian, artist, librarian	3

Thus one may conclude that editors of independent and oppositional newspapers of Azerbaijan even though stand at the highest level of newspaper hierarchy are not professionally educated to fulfill this specific job. In other words, there is no standardized normative knowledge that should help to professionalize journalists. Editors confirm that by saying that receiving a journalistic education is not important for a work of an editor.

III.1.3 Editors and their stances towards journalism education

K.G. is working as a deputy managing editor of the only full-colored newspaper in Azerbaijan - Kaspij. For 4 years was working for Crossroads⁹ TV program in Internews Azerbaijan and now is working as deputy managing editor as well as supervises politics section of his newspaper, writing political analyses and comments concerning regional development, Karabakh conflict, NATO cooperation, GUAM issues. K.G. is certain that though a university diploma is important in day to day life, for journalism it is not important.

“Reality shows that graduates of the following [journalism] faculties take key positions in media, that is why I think that journalism education is not necessary. I am philologist and I want to stress that faculty of philology of Baku Slavic University did not give me any knowledge of journalism since they simply don’t have it there. Besides I am commenting on political issues in press, and that is why I want to stress that specific journalistic education is not necessary. In ideal it is but the reality is different. I may say that my colleagues that already said their word in the world of press, I don’t consider myself to be among them yet, do not posses journalistic education as well.”

This notion is seconded by F. secretary editor of independent newspaper who has graduated from Baku Art College and then studied in Leningrad’s art college and works in media for 19 years.

“…In Azerbaijan if you implement monitoring I am sure that you will find that more than 95% of editors posses high education but not journalistic one. Of course, it is covetable that editors as well as others working in this profession have journalistic education. Yet here profession of journalist is not profession but rather turned into a way of life.”

The reason why majority of Azerbaijani journalists are working while they don’t posses diploma from the respective profession is explained by E.Sh. editor-in-chief of independent newspaper who is philologist and works in media for 19 years.

I guess in Azerbaijan reality it is not important [diploma], if we take in consideration what kind of education they are giving at our journalism faculties. I am saying that since I worked at one of journalism faculties. Our students are being accepted in universities on the basis of entry tests. First of all, it was interesting to me who intentionally wanted to receive education at the journalism faculty. I asked my students about it and out of 20 only one or two raised their hands. In other words people were selecting completely other faculties but were pushed by the system in journalism. For instance, I had very bright student. Now she works in a bank, and I would like to stress, her position does not relate to the subject she studied even in the slightest. She works somewhere at a cashier desk. That is why I state that the education [journalistic] is not necessary.

In-depth interviews showed deeply rooted problem with education quality at journalism schools that are considered to give inadequate quality of education. Thus many editors accept the fact that a journalist rather should have good university education that will broaden his/her horizons and will allow making judgments. B.S. an editor-in-chief of government newspaper who graduated from philology faculty from Baku State University and worked in printed media for 33 years is openly against taking freshly graduated students at work thus arguing that he protects newspaper’s auditory and quality of content.

I will put it like this; a journalist that has graduated from journalism faculty will not be accepted to work in N newspaper. It is not a learning facility. I tried several times to accept graduates to work but came to a conclusion that it is just impossible. I can’t teach him [journalist] the alphabet again since the school didn’t teach him it. He does not know the alphabet. We invite journalists with 10-20 years of practice in our newspaper.

Our research has showed an interesting pattern. Firstly, specific education in journalism received only editors of government newspapers that also populate the oldest category of respondents and believe that modern university graduates with journalistic diploma lack professional qualities to fulfill their jobs. And secondly, that Azerbaijan media in majority is populated by non-journalists from different fields of study that deem specific education not necessary for doing their jobs. An interesting fact is that with an exclusion of Soviet-school editors major education field represented among post-Soviet generation of selected editors is political science.

III.1.4 Work experience
Editors that participated in the research work in media minimally 3 and maximally for 33 years. Most common period of work in media is between 10-20 years. Majority of selected editors have worked well before the 1991 when Azerbaijan has gained its independence. Pro-government newspapers have the oldest editors [2 editors are 57 years old] while semi-independent and independent newspapers the youngest 27 and 28 respectively.

We are not able to answer the question if experienced members of journalist community receive more than their younger colleagues. While preparing surveys at Internews Azerbaijan office we were advised to exclude question concerning salary. Firstly, due to grey accounting the real salary may far exceed official one and our results will be invalid to make a judgment and secondly, according to Azerbaijani mentality and traditions it is rude and impolite to ask people who much they receive and they can be easily offended. Internews workers, who have conducted previous surveys on the territory of Azerbaijan warned, that they do not guarantee that editors will be willing to continue answering questions in case if asked such question. That is why the question remains open for future researchers to clarify it.

III.1.5 Satisfaction and motivation of Azeri editors
Our survey showed that majority of Azerbaijani editors came to this profession due to mixture of coincidental events (30%). Second to this group are editors that came after receiving journalistic education or taking long interest in it (65%). Only one editor (5%) checked the third option signifying pragmatic existential reason for becoming a journalist with one of them expressing his dissatisfaction with his current job.

Y. deputy managing editor of independent newspaper:

“I have to do this work since I cannot do anything else. I do not receive any satisfaction from this work. As far as I remember for at least 10 years I did not feel any satisfaction from it.”

Other editors expressed general satisfaction with their current position even though stressed that it is one of the hardest positions in Azerbaijan. The motivation of Azerbaijani editors to fill this position can be explained in two categories. First category those who enjoy their position due to creativity it offers and freedom to express their thoughts and power. X.K. deputy managing editor of semi-independent newspaper:

As an editor I receive joy from my work, when from an averagely written article I create readable, interesting story and that rises interest among readers. When the next time we receive letters that praise the article I enjoy some of that good feeling as well.

Others editors, especially deputies to managing editor and editors working in semi-independent newspapers say that they do not feel completely free since their freedom is somewhat restricted by their superiors and owner of the newspaper. N. deputy manager of an independent newspaper:

I do not consider my position creative since from the beginning I was prepared that my freedom will be restricted in… how to say… in fulfilling requirements set by my superiors.

This category tends to compensate the fact of their limited freedom by boosting their motivation with the fact that their actions might influence processes in the Azeri society. R. deputy managing editor of a semi-independent newspaper says:

When I see that some of my thoughts, expressed in a form of an article or analysis published on a newspaper’s page or in internet initiates discussions or gains interest among readers or experts, I enjoy it.

Unique motivation posses editors of oppositional newspapers that see their influence in providing society with news based on contrary to the political regime’s perspective, i.e. undermining governmental credibility. R. editor-in-chief of oppositional newspaper says:

Our main goal is to provide people with alternative sources of information since in Azerbaijan mass media owned by the government are disseminating news from one central source working as in times of the communist party. I want to show the reality and this is mission of opposition. So the motivation is to destroy that total propaganda that has done its work during the last 15 years.

A reasonable question arises what is the main motivation for editors of governmental newspapers? The answer is not surprising since as we have learned in the Chapter 2 governmental newspapers are dominated by old Soviet-school journalists and thus share same motivation and understanding

of influence as they did during the Soviet times. T. deputy managing editor of governmental newspaper:

I enjoy that I can express myself. I am living inside of cultural events, news. Everyone asks my opinion on different issues. I am idealist and alien to business or to selling something. My goal is to extend good values to the society, to cultivate culture in Azerbaijani society. So that people could live like in the West, in America. I want to make their life better. We have many resources that are wasted, misused and do not get to our people. And the struggle to make that happen is my motivation, I enjoy that I participate in this process.

Describing the motivation standing behind actions of Azerbaijani editors we inevitably come to necessity to describe their evaluation of their influence. The thought that media influence auditory has been a center of debates for the second half of the 20^th century. Yet, scholars have agreed that initial understanding of its influence was exaggerated and media are not all that powerful after all. Selected editors are not disturbed by the fact that their actions might affect process going on in the society. Azerbaijani editors state that they want to stir up processes and if some of their work brings a change or opens a discussion they feel satisfaction. Deputy managing editor X.K. from semi-independent newspaper recalls:

I think that my actions may an impact and that happened from time to time. For example I can tell you from my experience that in 1999 Heydar Aliyev was going to meet with Robert Kocharyan in Sweden and according to information we have received position of Azerbaijan was about to become milder towards occupation. We made it public. According to my information this article was shown to Heydar Aliyev right there in the airport by one of his ministers. Aliyev became enraged and asked to find that man who wrote it. And in two days I was called to National Security Ministry where they were explaining that what we did was unacceptable. But that day I know that our actions had a direct effect on national politics.

Not always however, editors are so positive about their influence. B.H. editor in chief of semi-independent newspaper:

Naturally we want to have influence in the society, to become fourth power and be a watch dog over government and parliament. We do it but our influence is impeded. The reason why we cannot become a fourth power is because our government with all its branches is closed towards society. If they will be open we will have an influence, but not now.

This idea finds approval among other editors that point out that various restrictions imposed by political regime impede influence of press and diminish role of journalists in the society. Among editors that incline to this point of view belongs R.A. editor-in-chief of oppositional newspaper does not see a point in ethics in current political situation:

Please, try to understand my reaction on your question. We are dying here. For

example, they killed the newspaper Real Azerbaijan. It is gone. They put Eynulla Fatulyev, the editor-in-chief of that newspaper in jail for several years. And I am in his condition. Editor-in-chief of Azadliq newspaper is in jail now. They put him there few weeks ago. We tried to make them to release those editors but achieved nothing. I would like to apologize for my rudeness but to such questions I will answer when we will start to live.

Not all editors blame solely the political regime for the loss of influence in society. For instance, editors along with stating above mentioned negative facts added that Azerbaijani journalism is flooded by low quality newspapers and journalists that lower trust and legitimacy of others. B.S. editor-in-chief of governmental newspaper comments:

In Azerbaijani journalism today there are many people who came to this profession with a purpose to make money, to fool people. They call themselves editors-in-chief when their newspaper has only 4 pages and employs only 3-4 people that are named respectively editor-in-chief, deputy managing editor, second deputy managing editor, secretary editor. All have positions and no journalists in their staff. Those people cause inflation of editor’s influence.

More serious threat to journalistic influence however causes extortionist journalism. The newspapers that are labeled with this term have primary goals and motivation different from all of the cases mentioned above since their sole motivation is extortion of money by threat of publicity. Such “journalists” thrive on multiple law deviations committed by government officials, agencies, companies and firms. After finding out such fact these people contact respective actors and demand that unless they are paid they will publish the information.