Collection “Elections 2003 and Mass Media in the South Caucasus”

Yerevan, Research Center “Region”, 2004  

In 2003, “Region” Research Center, Caucasian Institute of Peace, Democracy and Development (Tbilisi) and Committee of Protection of Azerbaijani Journalists (RUH, Baku) implemented a project “For Development of a Common Communicational Space in the South Caucasus” with assistance of the Program for Cooperation in the South Caucasus of the Eurasia Foundation.

Within the framework of the project a new webpage “Caucasus Journalists Network” was created as a common internet space for journalists and researchers, publishers and mass media in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Materials, included in this collection are the results of the work conducted in the “Network” by the cooperating partners, and they reflect on events which are of mutual interest, namely, on elections in the three countries of the South Caucasus and the role of mass media in 2003. The collection consists of two parts.

The first part of the book is devoted to the elections. Analytical articles prepared by individual journalists in the beginning of the year and Internet conference conducted in November with the participation of the experts from three countries, present a general picture of the forecasts, expectations and results of the elections, which , in our opinion, can be of particular interest for readers. Notably, the Internet conference “Elections in the South Caucasus: what will come next?” was conducted exactly in the period of after-elections events in Georgia, and, in this term,it  became unique due to the timely presentation of  the evaluations given at that moment. Moreover, during the discussion, different aspects in regard of the elections were touched upon: such as “were the elections in the region a step forward democratization in the countries? How did the governments and electorate behave during the elections? What do European standards and democracy mean to the people of these countries?

The second part of the book is devoted to “the fourth estate” of the countries in the region, as well as to the role of mass media in the elections. These are articles published in the Internet magazine “South Caucasus”, as well as materials from Internet conference of journalists from the three countries of the region: “The role of journalists in democratization and cooperation in the countries of the South Caucasus” and “The problems of development of independent journalism in the South Caucasus”. Opinions of the representatives of “the forth estate” and analysis of the situation in regard to the formation of the institute of independent journalists, access to information, the means with the help of which mass media could influence inter- and anti- political processes in the countries of the region, shed some light on the processes, which took place in the South Caucasus in 2003.

The book is in Russian and English. 

Introduction: L. Baghdasaryan
Editors: A. Khechoyan
Design: S. Faramazyan