Chairman Aflatun Amashov comments on terms of membership to Press Council

Baku. 19 February. REPOERT.AZ/ "The requirements for the membership include to register as a legal person and a taxpayer, to work for at least 2 years and not to have employees less than 3," the chairman of Azerbaijan Press Council Aflatun Amashov said it in his interview to Report News Agency. 

He stated that a letter of complaint on the media organization applying for the membership, should not be addressed to the Council for a period of 1 year: 

"As for limitations, media organizations that have the Council's decision on the violation of the principles of profession on them, are not eligible to apply for membership in the next one year from the day when the decision was made. In addition, the applications of media organizations which names ignore the principles of the Council and are placed in the list made for the mass media that regularly violate them, will not be considered. The media organizations which frequency of operation is violated in a sustainable manner will not be allowed to become a membership. For example, if any newspaper was registered as a weekly publication but do not operate for many months, cannot be a member of the Council. In fact, the above-mentioned restrictions have been applied till now, but today this issue has been improved." 

He said that according to the rules, the newspapers which have a circulation of less than 1,000 and the magazines that have a circulation less than 500, cannot be the members of the Council: "The number of online media that wants to become a member of the Press Council, has increased recently. Some of the most important restrictions in the rules are associated with them. The news agencies and online portals that have less than 1000 daily views according to the international counter systems (unique visitors), are not eligible to apply for membership."