FEED-BACK

The rather complicated situation caused by the world-wide crisis dictates its own rules regarding our way of life, when each of us should display a high degree of responsibility not only with regard to ourselves and our family, but also with regard to our fellow citizens, no matter how emotional that might sound. Responsibility towards society and civil solidarity are not just empty words, no matter who says them. This is precisely what might extricate us from this unfavourable situation.

"The state, the government and the citizens should make a joint effort to extricate themselves from this unexpected situation," President Ilham Aliyev stated this at the government session, in actual fact signifying the need for coordination between the government and society.

It is moreover no accident that in all his speeches the head of state stresses that, in the current situation, it is people in the front line - officials taking decisions and being responsible for them, who should display a particular sense of responsibility. They should understand that each of their decisions, on which the country's stability depends, should be transparent. They are obliged to explain their every word and action to the public so that the latter stop believing rumours and inventions which cause panic and confusion.

For it is precisely the lack of "feed-back" that caused the small, spontaneous protest rallies after the devaluation of the manat, which third forces were obviously trying to exploit. It was felt that people were worried not only by the national currency losing its value and the consequences of that, so much as by the uncertainty caused by the silence on the part of the state structures in charge.

Fuelled by the rumours being stirred up, the passions did in fact die down after the personal intervention of the head of state. In less than a month from the start of the year, President Ilham Aliyev has held three sessions of the government, announced to the people what further steps were being taken by the authorities to avert the negative effect of the global crisis, signed more than 20 decrees and instructions on raising wages, pensions and benefits for the socially vulnerable strata of the population.

One might ask oneself whether it was really necessary for the head of state to intervene personally in order to clarify everything.

Well-informed is fore-armed

It would appear that some state structures are not interested in people getting a good impression of the way they work. Why do they constantly want to keep what they are doing secret, not explaining things fully and failing to provide exhaustive information?

This results in a vicious circle: state structures which are not interested in providing objective and timely information, consequently "failing to create it", and journalists who furnish unchecked information, and citizens, who have been kept uninformed, beginning to believe any crumb of information that sprouts up on the extensive fertile soil of misinformation.

In particular, as we have already noted, the departments in charge of the economy did not show their best side during the announcement of the devaluation of the Azerbaijani currency since they failed to organise even a single press briefing to inform journalists what was happening. All this has given rise to uncertainty with regard to the future, since the respectable state structures prefer to keep themselves to themselves, fuelling a feeling of impending disaster, although this could have been avoided.

The outcome has been a hullabaloo on the secondary currency market. This is literally what happened: the Central Bank authorised a second, now almost 50-per-cent, devaluation of the manat, and let the Azerbaijani currency become a free floating currency; the banks stopped doing even non-cash transactions with foreign currency; the dollar and the euro disappeared from bureaux de change, and then the foreign currency exchanges closed down altogether after that. All this took place without any official announcements explaining what was essentially happening and what the plans for the future were. What fertile soil that provided for those wheeler dealers who wanted to stir things up by circulating rumours about an anticipated new wave of devaluation?

One example of "a storm in a tea cup" was the news that from the beginning of January 850 designations of medicines were banned in Azerbaijan, among them even harmless things like iodine and vitamin C. To begin with, the social networking sites "were absolutely buzzing" and then they "exploded". How could that possibly happen?! And how could we possibly manage without analgin, spasmalgon, and vitamin C ultimately?!" the indignant people were asking until the Ministry of Healthcare denied these assertions. It turned out that it was only a question of a range of pharmaceutical preparations that were being marketed without special permission. 

The Healthcare Ministry's Analytical Expertise Centre for Medications (AECM) makes such checks once a month. It has simply never occurred to any journalist before to make a sensation out of the ordinary information which is regularly posted on the Healthcare Ministry's website. As a consequence, while the Healthcare Ministry was preparing to refute this news, the irresponsible approach of some of the media which were reckoning on earning money from those clicks, was getting up to its tricks, having fanned the flames of the generally pessimistic mood caused by the new wave of devaluation.

Finally, the situation was clarified after meetings attended by the president and after extensive discussions at an extraordinary session of parliament on 19 January with the participation of the heads of the government's economic bloc. This means it took nearly a month before the public could learn what was actually happening in the country's economy and whether the government had any plans. In such cases, you see, there is a mechanism like emergency communications, the main requirement of which is "Don't keep things to yourselves!"

The first way in which ordinary citizens can help the reforms is by maintaining stability in society. To do this, they should be kept informed. Timely and authentic information prevents rumours from circulating and calms the public's nerves. In this respect, the example of neighbouring Russia is indicative, where press conferences have become a tradition ever since the sanctions war with the West began.

Moreover, in the view of the experts, contacts with the population should be professional, because inexperienced communicators can only cause the situation to get worse.

The state structures should know how to deal with the public

In this respect, every self-respecting structure and department is obliged to have a press service to play the main role in the "feed-back" process.

Thus, according to Zeynal Mammadli, a lecturer in journalism, the function of the press service is primarily to provide the population with information about the work of the structure which it represents, and, on the other hand, to represent the interests of its structure. If the official structures, ministries and departments were to provide timely information not only on what is happening, but also about planned developments, the population would not be shocked by sudden collisions," the expert says.

It is important to understand that, although the public relations [PR] service and press office in any structure are similar, they have different functions. In reality, says Z. Mammadli, the press service's main role boils down solely to public relations for its own structure, which in a social context, is like their spare wheel.

Merited journalist, critic and lecturer in journalism, Qulu Maharramli also believes that in the present circumstances the work of the press service is similar to that of the PR-service, although the press service is more journalistic. 

The problem is that the press service cannot fully publicise information without the consent of the top person (heading the structure). "They frequently confine themselves to press releases, in which the essence of the event, the measures or facts are provided in a sufficiently watered-down form or the facts are exaggerated. This does not correspond to the rules of the media and journalism. The press services should be independent, but in actual fact all their activity is regulated and agreed upon," the journalist thinks.

One of the press service's functions is collaboration with the media, a blessing of the numerous technologies which one simply needs to know how to use skilfully, and not create fertile soil for debates around the kitchen table, empty conversations and the voicing of unfounded opinions. All the conditions for providing feed-back for every official need to be created. 

We shall not mention the ministries by name here that allot their press services a big role in their activity, nor those who do not do that, although the latter are the overwhelming majority. Essentially, the state structures should understand that keeping citizens informed in a timely and highly professional manner regarding the measures undertaken in the current circumstances is no less important than carrying out the reforms themselves.

It is not citizens who should seek out an official in order to get an answer to their question, but the official who is obliged to show himself willing to answer any question that might arise among the public. As President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stressed, "state officials, including the president, are servants of the people. The people put their trust in us, and we should justify this faith and trust in us every day".