Blog Love, Received; And Journalism

Apparently some other folks are finding this blog.  Some of my PCV colleagues and I got some blog love from Hanif, at Hanif On Media (thanks!).  He recently made a trip to Azerbaijan as a representative of the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO).  He has a couple neat posts on what he did here in Azerbaijan that you can check out here and here.

Something else that I think is notable is just the mere fact that Western news organizations are coming to Azerbaijan.  I can only imagine that this is a good thing.  I think it’s fair to say that media here is much different from the type of open media European and American news organizations are wont to engage in.  Even around here, a lot of people that I talk to are disappointed in the state of the media here, where many journalists are not necessarily trained well in how to do strong research and investigative reporting.  These are the persistent problems I hear about when I speak with people who are interested in journalism and media.  And not only is the research generally of a lower quality, but the idea of media freedom is a little less robust than we’re used to.  Hanif touched on these a bit, and to get an idea of what’s going on in that sphere there are some important articles here and here.  Arzu on her Flying Carpets blog also has good posts here and here.