Media development organisations
In Azerbaijan, media development is mainly carried out with the help of international organisations such as IREX, which has been a USAID-funded project partner for the Media Support in Azerbaijan project in 2004-2014. The same project was implemented by the local section of Internews in 2002-2004.
The Azerbaijan Media Centre project was active in Baku in 2008-2012, promoted by the International Media Support organisation. In 2012, IMS was merged with IRFS and operated until 2014.
Internews Azerbaijan, as an organisation, opened its office in Baku in 1997. Until the end of 2004, it acted as a local partner of the US-based Internews Network and was engaged in USAID-funded media projects. Since January 2005, Internews has been building and implementing its own projects funded by various US and European funds as an independent local organisation.
The Azerbaijani Press Council jointly with the OSCE Office in Baku worked on the improvement of the Code of Professional Ethics of Journalists in Azerbaijan and drafted a law on defamation. Their activity was suspended in May 2014, when bank accounts of local and foreign NGOs financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Danish International Media Support (IMS) and other organisations have been frozen.