Azerbaijan: Foreign radio broadcasts fight to survive

Mina Muradova: 11/04/08

Fresh off a resounding re-election triumph in Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev's administration is courting controversy with the United States and Britain by pressing for changes in the country's broadcasting regulatory framework that would greatly hamper, or even halt the local operations of foreign radio stations by 2009. International media freedom activists have warned Baku that it would be making a "strategic mistake" if it followed through on its announced intentions.

Controversy about the local operations of foreign broadcasters – including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL), Voice of America (VOA), and The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) – erupted on October 31, when the chairman of Azerbaijan's National Television and Radio Council (NTRC), Nushiravan Maharramli, announced that authorities intended to put an end to local broadcasts in Azeri. Maharramli cast the decision as a routine administrative maneuver, contending that affected radio stations had been aware of the plan.

"Some years ago we resolutely raised the issue that the broadcast of foreign radio stations in Azerbaijan should be stopped, and the issue should be resolved in line with existing international practice," Azerbaijani news services reported the NTRC chairman as saying.

The NTRC has already closed down Russian and Turkish radio channels, and stopped the broadcasts of a French radio channel. In 2007, it signed one-year contracts with RFERL, VOA and the BBC, along with Turkey's TRT channel, after international organizations raised an outcry.

"National frequency resources belong to national bodies," Maharramli said, stressing that radio stations operating in Azerbaijan have the option of continuing to broadcasts via satellite, the internet or cable networks.

Many local observers are critical of the decision. Rashid Hajili, director of the Media Rights Institution, a Baku-based non-governmental organization, cast the NTRC's announcement as a politically motivated attempt to restrict freedom of expression. "If the National Council puts its intention into practice and stops the broadcast of these three services, indeed, it will be a blow to freedom of expression. The law on broadcasting adopted in 2002 says nothing about the prohibition of broadcasting by foreign stations," Hajili elaborated. "The law just says that [stations] must broadcast on the basis of intergovernmental agreements."

Those radio stations that signed agreements with the NTRC possess special licenses for broadcasting in Azerbaijan, Hajili continued. "All of this mean that the broadcasts by these radio stations are legal. Moreover, all programs are prepared in Azerbaijan and the journalists working there are citizens of Azerbaijan."

The decision has sparked a sharp response from the international community, which is already at loggerheads with the Azerbaijani government over treatment of domestic media.

In an October 31 statement, the Broadcasting Board of Governors – an independent federal agency that oversees all US government-financed, civilian overseas broadcasts, including transmissions by VOA and RFERL – called on the Aliyev administration "to reconsider this plan," adding that the NTRC's is pursuing a "disturbing pattern" of decision-making that began in 2006. In November 2006, the government of Azerbaijan shut down ANS radio station, which was rebroadcasting both VOA and RFERL content. The radio license, which ANS eventually received, was a compromise solution.

International media rights groups have also chimed in with stinging criticism of the Azerbaijani government's announcement. In a November 3 statement, the New York City-based media rights organization Committee to Protect Journalists noted that "[t]he disappearance of these foreign broadcasters from local airwaves robs Azerbaijanis of an important forum for independent news, views and debate."

The government's "argument that the frequencies are needed for Azerbaijani broadcasters would be credible only if it allowed diverse programming and reporting on the air," affirmed Europe and Central Asia program coordinator Nina Ognianova. "But the state has shown repeatedly it will not tolerate independent voices."

In a November 3 letter, the media rights group Reporters Without Borders echoed that stance, petitioning President Aliyev to distance himself from "a counterproductive act for Azerbaijan," terming Council Chairman Maharramli's statements "shocking."

The organization affirmed that the three affected stations "provide comprehensive, high quality and objective news" and "contribute fundamentally to the continued pluralism that is virtually non-existent elsewhere in the Azerbaijan media." It called for a dialogue with station representatives and the possible construction of new radio transmitters. Finally, the organisation urged the president to open a dialogue with the representatives of the three radios and to plan, if necessary, the construction of new transmitters.

Proceeding with the plan would seriously damage Baku's international reputation, the Reporters Without Borders statement indicated. "How could it not be seen as a desire to step up control of the country's media landscape and a mark of political failure," the statement asserted.

Maharramli dismissed claims that the government sought to restrict the free circulation of information. He also insisted that the new rules would be applied uniformly, not arbitrarily. "The decision applies to all foreign radio channels – to both critics and non-critics [of the administration]," he said in comments published November 1 by the opposition daily Yeni Musavat.

Radio listeners who depend on the three stations for regular news have created several online support groups on social-networking websites, including Facebook, Yahoo!, Day.az, terming the decision to stop the stations' broadcasts "a serious assault to freedom of speech."

A local youth organization, Dalga, or Wave, in English, is circulating a petition, gathering more than 500 hard signatures, along with 200 on-line affirmations, in three days. "Every week, and envelope with signatures against the Council's decision will be sent directly to Nushiravan Maharramli," said Vafa Jafarova, Dalga's chief told EurasiaNet.

Editor's Note: Mira Muradova is a freelance reporter based in Baku.