The Council of Europe Project “Gender equality and media freedom in Azerbaijan” organised a round table on “Gender equality and media” on 22 February 2019 in Baku. The Project presented the draft curriculum on “Gender equality and media freedom” to the discussion of journalism and law faculty members of the universities. The draft curriculum has been developed by an expert group consisting of local and international consultants under the Project. The curriculum intends to introduce a new course for journalism faculties with the aim to address gender equality issues and the media. The expected results of the course entail getting students familiar with the concept of gender equality, its historical development path in Azerbaijan, the international community’s approach to the issue and with legal regulation of media content according to national and European standards.

Ambassador Mr. Zoltan Hernyes, Head of Council of Europe Office in Baku and Dr Vugar Aliyev, Dean of Journalism Faculty of Baku State University addressed the audience at the opening session. The consultants, involved in development of the curriculum highlighted the main ideas and concepts of the draft curriculum in their presentations. Dr Krisztina Rozgonyi, Assistant Professor of the University of Vienna joined the round table via Skype conference. She made a presentation on the Council of Europe standards on gender equality and media freedom and emphasized the importance of the new curriculum. About 25 journalism and law faculty members of Baku State University, ADA University, Baku Slavic University, Azerbaijan University Languages as well as representatives of Ministry of Education and independent media experts took an active part in discussion. It was decided to submit the draft curriculum to the consideration of the relevant scientific council of Journalism Faculty at Baku State University.