Media Bias and the Coverage of the Karabakh Conflict

In this episode of the Media Mind, Dr. Tarek Cherkaoui hosts Shafag Mehraliyeva, Program Director, Communication and Digital Media, ADA University. Shafag Mehraliyeva, drawing on her personal experience, explains the Karabagh conflict and Azerbaijan’s victory. As an expert, she discusses how the Western media reports the issue, misleading the public about the background and specificities of the conflict and unfairly depicting Azerbaijan’s positions.

Shafag Mehraliyeva is a founding director of the Communication and Digital Media program at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan. She is a Faculty member at the School of Public and International Affairs. Ms. Mehraliyeva joined ADA in October 2012, bringing her extensive experience of twelve-year assignment in the United States, where she worked as a US correspondent for “AzerTAj” state telegraph agency. Based in Washington, DC, she covered US-Eurasia relations and was actively involved in cultural advocacy and community-building efforts. Prior to her assignment in the United States, Shafag Mehraliyeva was a news anchor for Azerbaijan’s national broadcasting channel Space TV and became her country’s first reporter to contribute to CNN World Report.  

She is a recipient of the “Karabakh Spririt” award from the US-based “Karabakh Foundation”, where she served as an adviser and spearheaded the Foundation’s “Azerbaijani Radio Hour” broadcasted on one of the capital area’s radio stations.