143 years ago, on July 22, 1875, national media was founded with the start of the publication of the newspaper "Akinchi" (The Ploughman) by one of the outstanding representatives of the era of enlightenment movement in Azerbaijan, Hasan bey Zardabi. The publication of the newspaper took a lot of effort for him. Thereafter, each year on 22 July, the Azerbaijani national press celebrates its anniversary, commemorating the first release of the “Akinchi” newspaper.

Hasan bey Zardabi’s motto “Everybody is deaf, everybody is blind, nobody whom I call answers me” fully describes the situation. He saw the way out of the situation in the publication of the newspaper in 1875. “If you put the stone under the drop, it won’t split  the stone, but over time the drops can make holes in the stone.”- Zardabi expressed the essential idea of the newspaper in this sentence. Zardabi could only manage to publish the newspaper for two years, and ‘Akinchi’ was closed in 1877. ‘Ziya’, ‘Kaspi’, ‘Tarjuman ’ newspapers and ‘Kashkul’ journal became the successors of ‘Akinchi.’ The processes that happened at the end of XX century provided a basis for the intellectual development. ‘Shargi-rus’ is considered to be the first newspaper – the pioneer of that time. Every press organ created that time tried to enrich ‘hungry’ people morally and intellectually. The first four leading bodies – ‘Molla Nasraddin’, ‘Füyuzat’ journals, ‘Hayat’ and ‘Irshad’ newspapers were on the top. “Taze həyat”, “Taraggi”, “Babayi amir”, “Bakinski rabochi”, “İttifag”, “Mekteb” and other journals and newspapers enlightened the intellectual, public and political situation of that time.

‘Molla Nasraddin’’s ideology was more concrete and realistic. Mirza Jalil’s article ‘I am here for your sake’ was the leading article of the journal. The journal published materials on the most contemporary revolutionary issues and about the Azerbaijanis’ troubles continued for ages.

There were almost 60 press organs in the Republic of Azerbaijan of which 28 were published in Azerbaijani, 20 – in Russian, and 12 in other languages. The popular press organs were  “Istiglal”,  “Basirat ”, “Qurtulush” and “Azerbaijan”. Despite the pressure during the Soviet power, the Azerbaijani press tried to  hold to its own traditions. The Soviet regime defined certain ideological principles for press, but Azerbaijani journalists could benefit from the press as a rostrum to express their opinion. The process has gone on since 1969 when Heydar Aliyev became the leader of the country. The intellectuals were with the people through the press.  The press organs like “Sharg gadini”, “Sovet kendi”, “Muallim qəzeti”,  and “Kirpi” journal  didn’t refrain from expressing sharp criticism on social and political problems.

On August 6, 1998, the national leader Heydar Aliyev signed a decree on abolishing press censorship, laid the foundation of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. In 1999, other normative acts of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic on Mass Media came into effect. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the ‘State support for the development of media in Azerbaijan’ on July 21, 2008. According to the Concept on State support for the development of media in Azerbaijan, the State Fund for Support of Mass Media Development under the President of Azerbaijan was established on May 2009. The Fund annually allocates money to newspapers, holds contests among journalists and carries out various projects.

Elmin Nuri