By Vestnik Kavkaza
Last month, a group of journalists from three South Caucasus republics visited Moscow. They had a meeting with their colleagues from “Vestnik Kavkaza”. On the sidelines of the forum, the editor in chief of VK, Alexei Vlasov, spoke to each of the guests from the Caucasus. Today we present the last interview of this series. This is a conversation with journalist from Azerbaijan, Lyaman Namazova.
- Is it easy or difficult to be a woman in journalism in Azerbaijan?
- I work for a business portal – biznesinfo.az. Your question cannot be answered unequivocally. It depends on your field of work. There is a clear division – social, economic and political issues. I write on business topics. I basically do not see any problems. I think that we have some kind of gender equality or balance in journalism.
- In Moscow, working in the field of business journalism consists of presentations, congresses, forums and receptions. Is the life of a journalist working in the field of business communications in Azerbaijan somewhat different?
- I think no. Those people who cover economics, business news, just do the same. They always attend some business conferences or events related to economic topics.
- Is it easier for a woman in journalism to extract insider information?
- I think so. I suppose it is much easier.
- Russian business journalism is a bit controversial. Does Azerbaijan have problems of the lowering of the tone of economic journalism, or do you have a western standard, where you can only publish the information that is a hundred times checked, and the journalist is responsible for it?
- First of all, perhaps, it should be noted that Azerbaijan does not have very developed business journalism. There is, for example, our portal, we position ourselves as an advanced portal, business portal in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani news agencies have sections of economic news. But there are almost no portals specializing exclusively in the business information. As for our portal, we give only the proven facts in order not to have any problems.
- Azerbaijan is one of the fastest growing countries in economic terms, not only of the region but also in the entire post-Soviet space. The core of this process is oil and gas. Is there any bias of the business side of journalism towards the resource sector, or do you aspire to more evenly distribute the issues you write about - finance, small and medium business?
- The focus is of course on oil and gas, but at the same time we aim to cover other areas, too, to create a complete picture.
- What interesting things have you found in this area, or did it happen just because of some natural causes?
- It happened because of certain reasons. When I started working on this site, I realized that business journalism is not developed, and there is a specific interest in the case to get involved in its development. This is very interesting.
- Did you like Moscow?
- I loved the organization and the event. There was an original dialogue of cultures. We were able to find new friends here, to get to know other cultures and meet new people, This is networking, speaking the language of business. (Networking is social and professional activities aimed at solving complex problems in life and business issues with the help of a circle of friends and acquaintances quickly and efficiently. The core of networking is forming long-term relationships with people and mutual aid. - Ed .) And overall, it was something new for all of us, some experience and positive networking.
