[HCDX] AZERBAIJAN: Reporters Without Borders appeals to president over threat to take foreign radios off air

["Arnaldo" <slaen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Reporters Without Borders appeals to president over threat to take foreign 
radios off air

Reporters Without Borders has sent a letter to President of Azerbaijan, 
Ilham Aliyev appealing to him to intervene after the National Broadcasting 
Council announced it planned to take three foreign radios stations off the 
FM band by 2009. They are the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice 
of America.

The worldwide press freedom organisation said in its 3 November letter that 
it was “dismayed” by these “shocking statements” by the council’s chairman, 
Nushirvan Magerramli, announcing the bans on 31 October.

The organisation pointed out that the three media involved “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 stressed that “their popularity - 
particularly that of RFE/RL - demonstrates this”.

Reporters Without Borders also condemned what it called a “very serious 
strategic mistake” that “it would strongly condemn should it happen”. “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 organisation asked.

The organisation pointed out that “these radios would not disappear because 
of this, because they would be able to broadcast on short wave as happened 
during the Soviet era. It would only have the effect of lowering the quality 
of reception for listeners.”

Stressing that it was not “not too late”, Reporters Without Borders urged 
President Aliyev to “reject this decision”, and to distance himself from “a 
counterproductive act for Azerbaijan”, and “to let it be known that foreign 
media are not a threat to your authority and that they play a key role in 
providing news and information to your citizens.”

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.

Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, Nushirvan Magerramli, said on 
31 October that the three radios, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, BBC and 
Voice of America in the Azeri language should stop broadcasting on FM from 
2009. “Azerbaijan is not interested in foreign radios on its national 
frequencies,” he said.

He added that over the past few years, Russian and Turkish televisions, as 
well as French and Russian radios, have lost their frequencies. The decision 
could be applied gradually, he said. The radios involved all broadcast on 
FM, RFE/RLand VOA on 101.7 and the BBC on 103.3.(rsf.org)

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