Azercell and The US Embassy ogranized the professional seminar for journalists.

Baku, July 13, 2007

Starting from the beginning of 2007 Azercell Telecom JV has been implementing its İnkişafı Paylaşmaq Platforması (Developing Sharing Platform) policy, which is focused on improvement of professional journalism in Azerbaijan. This strategy is a new stage of Azercell’s close relationship with Mass Media and aims sharing development of the leading telecommunications company with media, which is a mirror of the society.

Azercell Telecom JV together with the United States Embassy in Azerbaijan organized on Jule 11 a lecture on Business Journalism for local journalists by Deborah Potter, famous media expert of the US.

Addressing the event Jonathan Henick, the embassy’s Public Affairs Officer said that he was pleased with the cooperation with Azercell Telecom JV for improvement of the journalists skills. “The US Embassy is interested in existence of the strong and independent media in Azerbaijan. We support Azercell’s media policy and that is why we decided to cooperate with them. Together we can improve the skills of Azerbaijan journalists working.”

Deborah Potter, who has been engaged in journalism for 35 years and specialized mostly on broadcasting, said that she worked for CBS News, CNN, and the US Public television. In 13 years she mostly focused on journalism training. She has taught journalism as a faculty member at the Poynter Institute and at America University and conducted trainings for journalists in a lot of countries of the world. She is a past executive director of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. Ms. Potter has been leading Newslab Internet Resource Center in Washington DC.

Deborah Potter emphasized that the reason for her visit to Azerbaijan, which was organized by the US State Department was the book that she wrote for the journalists. Her “Handbook of Independent Journalism” was distributed to the journalists participating at the training. “I believe that the lecture supported by Azercell Telecom JV will be useful for Azerbaijani journalists. Improving skills of the journalists writing on business news will be reason for proper reporting about successes of Azerbaijan economy , which is developing dinamically”,- Potter said.

In her lecture the US specialist focused on the business news writing techniques as well. She shared her experience and learned the training participants views also.

Considering the independent and strong media as essential for development of civil society, Azercell Teleocm JV will continue the realization of different projects to support this mission of the journalism in Azerbaijan within its İnkişafı Paylaşmaq Platforması (Development Sharing Platform ).