HISTORY OF THE "FOURTH ESTATE"

A little under 140 years have passed since the enlightener and publicist Zardabi brought the Arabic typographic script from Istanbul, hired an old workshop and set up the first printing and publishing works. His celebrated newspaper, Akinci [Farmer], which paved the way for the national press and which was published with a paltry circulation of just 300 copies, did not exist for long. This story is well known. However, the events which took place in the Azerbaijani press afterwards - in the decades to come - were no less interesting and intriguing.

First steps

According to the official figures of that time, from 1870 to 1889 there were 56 newspapers, magazines and newsletters in the Caucasus. Twenty of these were published in Russian, 15 in Georgian, 15 in Armenian and just three in Azerbaijani. The reason for this imbalance was the attitude of the Muslim clergy, who promoted the idea that the people didn't need any sources of information other than the Koran.

The credit for the development of the Azerbaijani press is due not just to Zardabi, but also to another gentleman - the enlightener and public figure Mammad agha Saxtaxtinski. He was the first to make a success of journalism. 30 March 1903 saw the publication of the first issue of the Sargi-Rus [The Russian Orient] newspaper, which was the face of the Azerbaijani press for many years. From this paper came many celebrated journalists, and it was there that Calil Mammadquluzada began his career.

Language, alphabet and censorship

The demand for newspapers and magazines steadily increased in subsequent years. However, the 1905 Revolution made the Tsarist authorities distrustful of all publications.  For example, when comparing an issue of Kaspi newspaper (which lasted longer than all of them - from 1881 to 1919), you can easily see how much its content changed after 1905.

The censorship bodies paid much less attention to the Muslim press - few of them could read the Arabic script, and even if they could they didn't always understand the implications. And this played into the hands of [satirical newspaper] Molla Nasraddin. Beginning with just two pages, it soon "fattened out", and even added colour, and its circulation reached the unheard of figure of 25,000. When cartoons began to appear in the paper, the critics didn't need to be able to read the Arabic script to understand the meaning. After 1908 a number of attempts were made to close the paper, which was popular throughout the Caucasus and was also circulated in Iraq, Iran and Dagestan. 

"It was, of course, the cartoons that suffered most from this censorship," the historian Hasan Alllahverdiyev says. "Eloquent empty squares appeared in place of articles cut out by the censors." It was here that Mirza Calil was really clever, taking the situation to the point of ultimate absurdity. "He always had galley proofs with a pre-written text," the historian says. "And so in place of cartoons was written: 'Here there used to be a cartoon', 'We forgot to place a drawing here', or a text with a gentle reminder: 'Left blank, for reasons beyond our control', and other variations on this. That was how he provoked the censors who officially couldn't find fault with him."

The short time that the ADR [Azerbaijani Democratic Republic] existed was, arguably, the best for the press in those days. Tsarist censorship disappeared and Bolshevik censorship was still to come. Besides, the editors of many of the papers were eminent enlighteners whose names became legends. The Aciq Soz paper was run by Mammad Amin Rasulzada and the Azerbaijan newspaper by the theatre actor and writer Ceyhun Hacibayov. However, all the more or less significant figures of that time were involved in journalism.

Landmark newspapers of Soviet Azerbaijan

It could not be said that the early Soviet period damaged journalism and brought no benefit. Educational, including children's, magazines began to be funded by the state. Until then there had been only one children's magazine - Maktab [School] - and it only came out from 1911 and with a very small circulation. In the 1920s the magazines Maarif [Education], Qizil Cavanlig [Golden Youth], Young Pioneer and Azerbaijani Pioneer were published. Intermittent newspapers, such as Bakinskiy Rabochiy [Baku Worker], Kommunist and Vyshka [Oil Rig] occupied a special place at that time.

The fate of the legendary Bakinskiy Rabochiy, which still exists today, is quite interesting. It has played an important educative role in Azerbaijani history. It began on the wave of the first Russian Revolution and became the mouthpiece of the Bolsheviks. The paper occasionally stopped production and it was only in 1920 that it began to be published on a regular basis. In Soviet times Bakinskiy Rabochiy was the flagship of the Azerbaijani Russian-language press. Ordinary people looked for the truth in it and turned to it for help. Today Bakinskiy Rabochiy is 109 years old!

Kommunist was one of the few really popular newspapers. The point is it was set up by real communists and not those who acknowledged this ideology after the abolition of the ADR. Back in August 1919 Kommunist was published illegally. It was founded by that genuine communist and proponent of general education Ruhulla Axundov (like many true fighters he was shot during Stalin's purges), who later became  People's Commissar of Education of Azerbaijan. The paper's deputy editor was Mammad Said Ordubadi (the author of the celebrated novel The Sword and the Pen) and the senior author, the celebrated, true people's poet Aliaga Vahid.

The 1920s were noted for the widespread construction of industrial enterprises in Azerbaijan. News about all the changes was no longer included in Bakinskiy Rabochiy and so the newspaper Vyshka started publishing in Russian on 1 March 1928.  The paper was set up to cover the development of the oil industry and the day-to-day activities of Azerbaijan's oilworkers.

The paper's first print run was 10,000, but after the war it reached 120,000, and it spread not only throughout the USSR but also in the USA, West Germany, Israel, Cuba, Iran, Turkey and a number of other countries.

As well as these landmark newspapers various thematic newspapers were published in Azerbaijan, and not just in the capital but also in the various regions of the republic. The newspaper Idman (Sport), which is the oldest sports paper in the country, is regarded as one of the veterans of the Azerbaijani press. First published in 1932 under the title Azerbaijani Sportsman, it is now 83 years old.

The post-Soviet period

In 1987, perestroika, which began all over the USSR, found its way to Azerbaijan. The new ideology in the USSR had a strong influence on the public mood in the country.

The first independent publications appeared in Azerbaijan at the end of the 1980s. The hunger for information, which the state-run press could not satisfy, played into the hands of private newspapers, many of which, literally when they were first published, started making a profit with virtually no advertisements in them, Hasan Allahverdiyev says. "In 1994-95, when the price of newsprint increased almost sixfold, printing services became more expensive and many publications lost the support of business. As a result, newspapers were forced to reduce their circulations, they were published less frequently and many simply closed down. This turn of events forced the managers of Azerbaijan's printed media to think seriously about the need for structural changes and a restructuring of their finance policy. From the second half of the 1990s the media began to study the interests of their readers and to find their place in the country's information market," he said.

A new turn in the development of the press was given by President Heydar Aliyev's special instruction of 6 August 1998 on the lifting of press censorship. President Heydar Aliyev's decree of 18 June 2001 "On perfection of measures for the use of the state language", which stressed the role and functions of the Azerbaijani language as an attribute of independent statehood, proved to be historic. And from 1 August 2001 the transfer to the Azerbaijani alphabet in Latin script was begun everywhere.

Today

According to Allahverdiyev, in terms of status and direction, Azerbaijan's newspaper market today could be classified as follows: government publications (ministerial, national and state); party publications (opposition, pro-government); independent (information and analysis, advertising, specialized, tabloid newspapers).

Government newspapers are distinct in both form and content. The most conspicuous examples of government newspapers are Azerbaijan, Xalq Qazeti and Respublika.  They are mostly subsidized, although some of their costs are covered by advertisements and subscriptions. The prime examples of the party press are the three newspapers that are owned by the opposing political camps: Yeni Azerbaijan, Yeni Musavat and Azadliq [Freedom].

Azerbaijan's increasing integration into the world community is enhancing the role of the independent media which have held leading positions in modern Azerbaijani journalism. The advertising market and the private distribution network of printed matter have developed, allowing many publications to become self-financing and even make a profit. The most popular and readable among the independent publications are Zerkalo, Exo, 525ci Qazet and others.

Before 1990 it was only the state-run news agency Azerinform (later renamed AzerTaj) that existed in Azerbaijan. In October 1990 the first independent news agency, Turan, created by a group of journalists, started up in the country.  At the beginning of 1991 another independent agency appeared - ASSA-Irada - and then, starting from 1992, this sector of the information market began to develop quite rapidly. The best known agencies on the Azerbaijani information market are Trend, Azerpress, Sarq, MPA, Azadinform, APA, Interfax-Azerbaijan and others.

The main problem facing the independent news agencies and newspapers is probably finance. The threat of losing subscribers constantly hangs over them. So, in 2002, the Azerbaijani president's decree "On additional measures to increase state concern for the development of the media" proved to be timely. And on 31 July 2008 President Ilham Aliyev's instruction "A concept of support for the Azerbaijani mass media" was approved. According to this instruction, on 22 May 2009, a State Support Fund was set up under the Azerbaijani president which frequently implements various projects to support the media. No should we forget the construction with state support of a separate centre for journalists, the first of its kind in the world. And this was not one-off support - a second centre is already being built.

A great deal has changed since the independent press emerged in Azerbaijan, and these trends are occurring not just in the Azerbaijani press, but also in the world's press. Leading publications are closing their printed publications and switching to the vast expanses of the Internet. A countless number of websites has appeared in Azerbaijan. Blog entries and podcasts are becoming more and more popular but, despite this, there are over 4,500 press organs in Azerbaijan today.

The Azerbaijani press has given the world such names as Zardabi, Mammadquluzada, the writer-journalists Banin and Cingiz Huseynov, the musician-journalists Uzeyir Hacibayov and his brother Ceyhun, journalists and public figures Mammad Amin Rasulzada and Rza Quliyev, as well as our contemporaries Nacaf Nacafov, Rauf Talisinski, Dilbar Axunzada, Elcin Sixli, and others.

Many more names of people who have formed the face of the national press in its 140 years of existence could be added to this list.