Azerbaijan Free Speech Foundation (AFSF) is continuing to the monitoring of freedom of speech and mass media in our republic in accordance with different parameters. The foundation investigated analogical problems regarding to the activity of 10 years old municipalities. According to the result of the monitoring carried out in November only two media outlets dedicated to the municipality activity “Municipality life” and “Municipality of Shaki” were published. It should be reminded that the first media outlet is published with the support of Trade Committee of Municipality Employees and the second one is published with the support of the municipality of Shaki. We should also note that the mentioned newspapers are published twice a month with the circulation of 1000-1500.
Within the monitoring AFSF investigated the municipality media outlets which stopped their activity or were closed for these or those reasons. Thus, during the monitoring of the expert group of the organization it became clear that 5 media outlets and 2 magazines stopped their activity for financial reasons. Among 4 internet resources on municipalities only 3 of them bim.az, brm.az and municipality.az are currently in use. The website belediyye.org has stopped its activity. Among the internet websites municipality.az is updated daily. We should note that the other 3 websites were established due to the grant program.