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AZERBAIJAN
I.
Opposition parties demand television law.
A group of small Azerbaijan opposition parties have
demanded an end to the ABA company’s alleged
monopoly of TV advertising and the abandonment of plans
to license independent television companies. They
threatened to launch a campaign in defence of TV
independence unless the authorities relented, and called
for broadcast media rights to be enshrined in a
television law. The following is the text of
a report by the Azerbaijani news agency Turan:
Nine [minor] political parties have issued a joint
statement condemning the activity of the ABA company [ABA
relays Russian television channels], which has
“monopolized” the television advertisement
market of the country. The authors of the statement
rate the actions of the ABA company as
“pressure” on independent television companies,
and demand an end to it. In connection with this,
the political parties consider the adoption of a
television law to be important. The law would
ensure the legal regulation of free competition in the
television field.
The statement contains a demand that
“artificial” obstacles to the activity of
independent television companies should be eliminated
[reference to attempts to make independent TV companies
buy licences and submit to state TV company
inspection]. Otherwise, the question of setting up
a committee for the protection of the rights of
independent television companies will be raised, says the
statement, which was signed by the People’s Freedom
Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Compatriot
Party, the Azerbaijani Socialist Party, the Party for the
Democratic Independence of Azerbaijan, the Democratic
Socialist Party of Azerbaijan, the Evolution Party, the
National Salvation Party and the Turkic World
Party.
Turan
news agency, Baku, April 29, 1999
II.
Reporters Sans Frontieres reports press violations.
Over 24 journalists were detained and about 40 were
beaten up by police in Azerbaijan in 1998, the annual
report of the Paris-based international rights
organization Reporters Sans Frontieres says.
In 1998, 10 of the country’s newspapers were
subjected to censorship 68 times altogether.
The official repeal of censorship in August exerted
substantial influence on freedom of speech in Azerbaijan,
the report confirms. Thus, lawsuits against a
number of opposition and independent mass media bodies
were brought and police violence against journalists
continued.
As before, there have been cases of “moral
censorship” and reports about specific persons and
themes is still taboo.
About 20 journalists staged a hunger strike in protest
against the actions of the police and authorities in
November, but the authorities barely reacted to these
protests.
Last year a number of lawsuits were brought against the
opposition mass media, through which bureaucrats
attempted to close down certain newspapers with which
they were dissatisfied.
The same year the Azerbaijani authorities made efforts to
stop the broadcasting of Radio Liberty’s Azeri
service on mediumwave. There were other numerous
violations of freedom of speech in Azerbaijan, the report
says.
Turan
news agency, Baku, April 27, 1999
III.
ANS TV urges advertising ban on foreign channels.
The Azerbaijani TV station ANS has called for an end to
advertising on all foreign channels with a view to
boosting the market share of domestic television.
The following are excerpts from the ANS report;
subheadings added editorially:
Russian and Turkish television channels broadcast in
Azerbaijan under the agreements endorsed by the
republic’s Presidential Executive Office. This
was said by the head of the Teleradio [Television and
Radio] Production Association at the Communications
Ministry, Bakhysh Bakhyshev. Amongst others, the
Turkish channel TRT has been broadcasting since the
signing of an intergovernmental agreement. Under
the agreement, the TRT television channel pays 1m dollars
to Azerbaijan annually.
Russian
channels pay less than TRT
[Correspondent]
Bakhyshev says that TRT pays more than the Russian
channels, given that its programmes are received
throughout Azerbaijan. By contrast, programmes of
RTR [Russian Television and Radio] and ORT [Russian
Public TV] do not cover the country’s entire
territory and thus they pay less. In turn, ORT
programmes are received by fewer areas of the country
than RTR’s. However, both Russian television
companies pay Azerbaijan 13.43 dollars for one hour of
broadcasting. This is 88,235 dollars a
year.
Bakhyshev said that from this year onwards, the Russian
television companies have authorized the ABA company to
relay the stations in Azerbaijan. On 11th January
1999, a trilateral agreement on this was signed between
the Russian side, the ABA company and the Teleradio
Production Association. Bakhyshev said that the ABA
is responsible for broadcasting these channels only in
the area of Baku. He says that the ABA company pays
its dues for broadcasting the Russian channels on
time. It had no debts with the Teleradio Production
Association. It is interesting to note that under
the first agreement with the Russian channel NTV
[independent], signed in early 1997, the cost of an hour
of broadcast time was 15.43 dollars, totalling 105,000
dollars a year. For unknown reasons, a new
agreement was signed in December 1997, this time between
the ABA, NTV and Teleradio. Bakhyshev says the cost
remained unchanged under the agreement. However,
according to the information received from a reliable
source, under the new agreement the ABA company pays only
12.89 dollars for an hour of broadcast time for
NTV—and that is not the end of the
puzzle.
[Presenter]
[On 21st April], we turned to Communications Minister
Nadir Ahmadov to ask about the principles underlying
financial relations with channels broadcasting on
Azerbaijani territory.
[Ahmadov]
Some channels cover 70 per cent of Azerbaijani
territory. As for the ABA, as far as I know, its
product, that is its advertisements, is not broadcast to
the provinces, it is only broadcast in Baku. . .
.
[Correspondent]
Another truth, or rather another fact is emerging.
The ABA television advertisement company is violating its
commitment to the Teleradio association not to extend
beyond Baku. The reason is clear. If the
agreement had envisaged the broadcasting of NTV not only
in Baku but in other districts, they would have had to
pay more. As for the communications minister’s
claim that NTV is broadcast only in Baku, frankly we were
surprised that the republic’s chief communication
official should be so poorly informed about the
situation. . . .
Russian
TV gets lion’s share of advertising
[Correspondent]
According to an investigation into television advertising
during the [first] quarter [of the year], the advertising
budget of all the television channels broadcast in
Azerbaijan was 2,854,482 dollars. Taking this
figure as a yardstick, let us look at how the sum is
divided among the channels. Thus, 10 per cent of
the sum goes to AzTV1 and AzTV2, and 26 per cent to ANS,
Space and SARA jointly. Russian channels get the
largest share of the total advertising budget, 64 per
cent, of course, in the person of the ABA. Let us
be more precise about the 64 per cent. That is
exactly 2m dollars. Yes, you have heard correctly,
2m dollars. We are simply questioning, in a
situation of economic crisis and shaky financial
stability, where these 2m dollars, made in only three
months, go. We ask whether it could really be free
of charge to advertise on ORT, RTR and NTV? Of
course, if it is not, then that means that part of the
money taken by ABA goes out of the republic. I
wonder whether taxes are paid on that sum? The
question could be answered by the State Tax Inspectorate,
too. Of course, only if they would like to
answer. Everyone knows that before ABA appeared,
Russian channels were broadcast on Azerbaijan’s
territory, anyway. No-one is going to ban the
ABA’s service or their rebroadcasting on the
country’s territory.
The issue at stake is the need to ban advertising not
only on Russian channels but also on all foreign
channels. We think it is time to amend the
advertising law and ban advertisements on foreign
channels. The earnings received from advertising
could go to the country’s television channels and
help develop both the national and private television
channels. I wonder who could explain logically to
an ordinary citizen why Azerbaijan should receive 1m
dollars from its closest friend, brother and strategic
partner, Turkey, for one channel, and 10 times less for
three channels from Russia—a country which is
neither our close friend, nor our distant comrade, nor
even our official enemy and which is in fact
Armenia’s military ally into the bargain. And
I wonder why the Teleradio Production Association speaks
about profits in 1998, when it lost 2bn manats, but not
about 1997, when it made 3bn manats. It is
interesting to speculate about dramatic events that we do
not know about.
ANS
Television Network, Baku, April 21, 1999
IV.
Private TV companies appeal on licence ruling.
The Azeri independent television and radio companies ANS,
Space and SARA have sent an appeal to the Supreme Court
expressing their “discontent” with regulations
on obtaining a licence for their operations following a
new directive from the cabinet, Baku-based ANS TV
reported on 15th April. The appeal states that
“certain points of the instruction violate a number
of the provisions of articles in Azerbaijan’s
constitution, the laws on the mass media, business
activity, on enterprises, on unfair competition as well
as the presidential decree on improving the system of
state control and eliminating artificial obstacles in the
field of developing business activity.”
ANS TV cited the heads of the three TV
stations—Vahid Nakhysh of ANS, Rauf Shahriyar of
SARA and Boyukaga Mammadov of Space—as saying that
the cabinet’s demand that they should obtain a
certificate of technical competence from the state TV and
radio company and hand over exclusive authority to the
Press and Information Ministry was “an indirect
restoration of censorship.”
This is the first time that Azerbaijan’s private
television and radio companies have appealed to the court
against the government, ANS TV added.
ANS TV,
Baku, April 15, 1999
V.
TV licence plan “ridiculous,” says minister.
Commenting on the cabinet’s resolution on licensing
publishing and TV and radio broadcasting companies,
Azerbaijani Minister of Press and Information Siruz
Tabrizli said that the situation was ridiculous. It
is like saying that a man who intends to open a bakery
should be forced to obtain a certificate about his
technical abilities from someone who started working in
this field before him. The minister said that as
far as this question was concerned, he was as ever on the
side of journalists.
ANS TV,
Baku, April 14, 1999
VI.
Opposition party deplores licensing decision.
The People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party [PFAP] press
service says in connection with the cabinet’s
resolutions No 84 and 85 “On rules for granting
special permits (licences) for broadcasting, publishing
and printing activity” that PFAP deputies oppose the
adopted resolution and view it as pressure on independent
TV companies and publishing houses and on the mass media
as a whole. The PFAP has also declared that the
resolution contradicts the media law, and called for its
repeal.
The PFAP press service wishes to note once again that the
resolution runs counter to the mass media law, and to
inform the cabinet that the introduction of licensing and
the granting of this right to the Ministry of Press and
Information contravenes the media law and cancels out the
clause that a court decision can close down a media
outlet. In addition, the government’s desire
to fund the budget at the expense of television and
newspapers is absurd and proves that the government is in
a deplorable situation.
“The PFAP press service regards this resolution of
the cabinet as a step towards making the free press
dependent on the government and demands that the cabinet
annul as soon as possible this resolution as it is aimed
to suffocate freedom of speech.”
‘Azadlyg,’
Baku, April 14, 1999
VII.
TV licence resolution said violating media law.
The ANS broadcasting company might go off the air. . .
. The resolution of the cabinet of ministers dated
16th April 1998 on rules for granting special permits or
licences to broadcasting, publishing and printing
companies is directly aimed at violating the media
law. According to the new resolution, private
broadcasting companies have to pay a fee of 15m manats. .
. .
In brief, all these obstacles are being created not only
for ANS but for all private companies. It
turns out that it is not sufficient for us to be
registered and to have been on air for seven years.
In addition to various fees that the company has paid to
the state, we also have to pay a fee to renew our licence
nearly every year. That should be regarded as a
violation of human rights, as creation of artificial
obstacles for the independent mass media, prevention of
free business development and as a restriction of the
freedom of the press.
[Correspondent]
. . . The resolution creates artificial obstacles for
independent commercial broadcasting companies and in
general for any juridical entity engaged in free
enterprise. For example, under the licensing rules,
independent broadcasting companies should submit a
certificate from the Azerbaijani State Radio and TV
Broadcasting company on the technical maintenance of the
broadcasting of their radio and TV programmes. A
certificate should be issued by the police confirming
that the premises of a commercial broadcasting company
have a special security entry system. Among other
required documents to be submitted are the company’s
regulations, a permit issued by the state commission on
radio frequencies, certificates from the sanitary and
epidemiology centre and the fire directorate, as well as
other unnecessary documents.
ANS TV, Baku, April 7, 1999
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