Ñollection «Election 2003 and Mass Media in the South Caucasus»
Yerevan
2004
In 2003, “Region” Research Center of Investigative Journalists of Armenia, 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” (www.caucasusjournalists.net)
was created as common internet space for journalists and researchers, publishers and mass media in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Materials, included in this collection are results of the work conducted in the “Network” by the cooperating
partners, and reflect on events which are of mutual interest, namely, on elections in three countries
of the South Caucasus and position of mass media in 2003. The collection consists of two parts.
The first part is devoted to elections. Analytical articles prepared by individual journalists
in the beginning of the year and Internet conference of experts from three countries, conducted in November,
present a general picture of expectations and results of election, which, in our opinion, can be of particular
interest for readers. Notably, the Internet conference “Elections in the South Caucasus: what is next”
was conducted exactly in the period of after-election events in Georgia, and, in this term, became unique
due to its timely presentation of evaluations given at that moment. Moreover, during the discussion,
all range of aspects regarding elections was observed: were elections in the region a step towards democratization
in these countries, how the governments and electorate behave during elections, how the essence of European
standards of democratization is understood in the countries of the region etc.
In the second part, materials devoted to “the fourth power” of the countries in the region,
as well as to the role of mass media in elections are presented. These are articles published in the
Internet magazine “South Caucasus”, as well as materials from Internet conference of journalists from
three countries of the region: “Role of journalists in democratization and cooperation in countries of
the South Caucasus” and “Problems of development of independent journalism in the South Caucasus”.
Opinions of acting in the region journalists on “the forth power” and analysis of situation regarding
institution of independent journalists, access to information, resources for mass media influence on
inter- and intra- political processes in the countries of the region, give another explanation of the
processes, which took place in the South Caucasus in 2003.
The publication is printed in Russian and English.
