On the sidelines of the 18th Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies General Assembly, Mehr News correspondent had a short interview with the Editor-in-Chief of Baku-based Trend news agency.
Regarding fake news and the necessity of combating the issue that many news agencies and states are dealing with, Emin Aliyev said, "You know, this topic is one of the most important topics we're gonna discuss here. because most of our countries, the member agencies, and the member countries of OANA, are facing the misinformation waves, we're in a kind of media war, we're facing outrageous propaganda against us. So I think that this is a special topic for us, especially for me, I'm from Azerbaijan, and we're facing propaganda. I hope that meetings like this and international cooperation summits will help us to share our own experiences to fight mispropaganda. because I understand clearly that our experience is way more different than your experience and your experience is different from that experience of any other country in the world. so by sharing our experience and our expertise we can be more efficient in fighting our media enemies, in tackling enemy propaganda and fake news."
Referring to western media efforts to tarnish the image of Iran, he said, "You know, I'm shocked in a positive manner, because before traveling to Iran, as every foreigner traveling somewhere, not only in Iran, you just google, you just search for some information about the country you're traveling to. and in the case of Iran, of course, when you try to search on google, youtube, or any other platform, you can find some negative information about security, about the probability of being arrested or punished or something. But traveling here, I was ready to evidence something with my own eyes. You know, it's better to one time to see with your own eyes than hear maybe a hundred or a thousand times, as we say in Azerbaijan. So I arrived here and I was positively shocked by the hospitality of the people, by the delicious food, by the totally secure behavior and atmosphere here, you know, of course, maybe there are some problems, but it's similar to any other country. For example, you can be hit by a car or by a bus, or a bike, even in Tehran or in Baku or in Ankara, or any big city you visit. So Iran, in my opinion, doesn't have some unique problems, and about hospitality and calmness and willingness of people, I'm feeling like I'm at home."
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