Consistent policy aimed at strengthening democratic institutions has been pursued in Azerbaijan over the past 15 years

Baku, October 12, AZERTAC “A consistent policy aimed at strengthening democratic institutions, ensuring political pluralism, human rights and freedoms and cementing civil society institutions has been pursued in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev over the past 15 years. Thanks to this policy, 55 political parties, more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations (more than 4,000 non-profit organizations), more than 5,000 media outlets as well as trade unions that bring together about two million people, are today freely operating in the country,” says the Azerbaijani President’s Assistant for Public and Political Affairs, department head, professor Ali Hasanov in his article on the results of President Ilham Aliyev`s 15 years in power. The article says that ensuring freedom of speech and information, formation of democratic, pluralistic press constitute the key priorities of the state policy. “Over the past years, President Ilham Aliyev has adopted numerous decisions, signed relevant decrees and orders to improve the financial resources and infrastructure of the media and strengthen social security of journalists. The total number of media outlets in the country exceeds 5,000 and the number of registered websites in the Az. domain exceeds 20,000. About 80 percent of the 10 million Azerbaijani population are Internet users and about 3 million are social network users. There are 11 nationwide, 4 satellite, 13 regional, 17 cable, 25 internet (IP) television and 16 radio stations in Azerbaijan,” the Presidential assistant says in his article.