On February 25th President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received participants of the 16th meeting of the Council of Heads of State News Agencies of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Information Council).
The Azerbaijani leader expressed confidence the meeting of the CIS Information Council will be a success.
The Head of State praised the meeting as a significant event in terms of boosting cooperation between friendly nations in all areas, especially in the fields of information policy and information security.
President Ilham Aliyev pointed out that alongside with energy and food security, the issue of information security is also among topics of discussions at the present time.
The Head of State said necessary steps had been made to reform mass media in the country, adding measures on this front continue.
The President said everyone has the right to receive information, adding media organizations bear great responsibility for reliability and accuracy of news.
The Azerbaijani leader expressed regret that sometimes information is either distorted or biased because of political ambitions, views and purposes.
“News, which draws attention of the world community, and ways of their delivering by some media organizations can be obvious examples to what I said. Therefore people need not only accurate and reliable, but also unbiased news from various resources,” the President stressed.
The Azerbaijani leader hailed increasing role of the mass media in the world, saying “cooperation between news agencies of the friendly countries assumes special significance in terms of both highlighting realities objectively, and exchanging experience and news.
The President stressed the CIS Council of Heads of State News Agencies plays a key role in reaching these goals.
Characterizing development of information and communication technologies as one of the country`s basic priorities, the Head of State said 2013 was declared the “Year of ICT” and Azerbaijan has recently put its first communications satellite into orbit. The President said Azerbaijan plans to create in the near future an advanced technologies park which will assemble activities of local and foreign ICT companies in the country.
The President expressed confidence that the 16th Baku meeting of the CIS Information Council will be effective and significant to bolster relationship, as well as boost mutual understanding and cooperation between news agencies.
Chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of State News Agencies and Head of the ITAR-TASS Board Vitaly Ignatenko said Baku for the fourth time hosts the meeting of the CIS Information Council. He also remembered participation of national leader Heydar Aliyev in one of the last meetings.
Mr. Ignatenko praised rapid development of the mass media and ICT in Azerbaijan, and congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of Azerbaijan`s joining the space club.
Director General of ITAR-TASS news agency Sergey Mikhailov described cooperation between news agencies as “a sign of relations between the countries”.
ITAR-TASS`s chief presented a keepsake to President Ilham Aliyev on behalf of participants.
First Deputy Director General of ITAR-TASS Mikhail Gusman said he believes the Baku meeting of the CIS Information Council would produce effective results.