The Public TV team of Georgia took the first place in the competition. IRFS employee, and “Ayna” and “Zekalo” newspapers’ journalist Idrak Abbasov, who took part in the competition, told this to IRFS.
“Journalists from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia participated in the competition,” said I.Abbasov. “In general 8 TV channels took part in the competition. Azerbaijan was represented by IRFS video-operator Mehman Huseynov and me in this competition. There were only two awards – first and second places in the competition. To have one of these two awards is a great success for us, because we are not TV journalists and we had such serious competitors as “Rustavi-2”, “Imedi”, “Ajar-TV”, “Georgian TV” and “Erkir” TV from Armenia.” It was 19 year old operator Mehman Huseynov’s first time taking videos in this kind of setting, but Huseynov surprised the jury with his ability.
The competition for TV journalists was held in one of the training squares in Georgia’s “Vaziani” military base. The staged war was dedicated to the rendering of the general from Somali, who was accused of terrorism, harmless by American soldiers. The battle took place in a small town destroyed as a result of bombing. The soldiers were given real guns, but they used both rubber shrapnel and bullets. According to the terms of the competition, the journalists should not be captured, shot, or on top of all should give balanced reportage from the battle ground.