Unrealistic stories, dishonesty, ignorance and misrepresentations about Azerbaijan are given center stage and increasing tendency to focus on the negative, while neglecting positive news coverage dominates in the western media in connection with the first European Games in Baku.

Everyone got used to the idea of the Olympics being used by politicians and western news organizations to send a message that goes well beyond sport. The media is a business, and today with thousands of newspapers, TV channels and millions of online news sources it is very hard to succeed. They will do whatever it takes to get more views, clicks, followers, readers and focusing on unique visitors. Negative stories draw the attention of more readers and this also motivates the media to find bad news even in the good news.

News that excessively focused on limited aspect without deeper analysis and coverage of real issues in Azerbaijan has been ignored or oversimplified. The main issues of Azerbaijan are related to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The news organizations should focus their attention on Azerbaijan’s territory occupied by Armenians, situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan.

Karabakh is a historical, ancient Azerbaijani land and Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized by the entire international community as an integral part of Azerbaijan. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on an unconditional withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijan’s lands.

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