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MOST POPULAR AZERI COMMERCIAL BROADCASTER TAKEN OFF AIR
BBC Monitoring research, November 25, 2006
 Azerbaijan's largest independent TV and radio broadcaster ANS has been taken off the air by the authorities. The closure was announced two days prior to the scheduled celebration of the company's 15th anniversary. The Azeri broadcasting watchdog - the National TV and Radio Council (NTRC) - decided not to extend the ANS licence and the company was ordered to stop broadcasting shortly after 1100 gmt on 24 November.
History
The company was founded in 1991 by three young Azeri journalists, brothers Vahid and Seyfulla Mustafayev, and Mirsahin Agayev. It was the first private television company in the former Soviet Union. At first, ANS specialized in reports from the front line during the period of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) declared by the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. At this time several republics of the then Soviet Union, including Azerbaijan, were engaged in local conflicts.
The company was sending reporters to war-torn areas such as Chechnya, Georgia, Ossetia, Nagornyy Karabakh, Abkhazia, Afghanistan and Ingushetia, while cooperating closely with major international broadcasters. When ANS started broadcasting it was using the state AzTV frequencies. The TV's news bulletin Xabarci became very popular - and as a result came under pressure. The bulletin was regularly censored at this time.
Between 1993-94, ANS TV was taken off the air three times. Nevertheless, the company survived the political and financial pressures being applied by the authorities.
In November 1994, a dispute broke out between ANS and the state TV company where ANS was renting an office. Company staff were ordered to vacate the premises. However, the then president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, intervened and the ANS TV broadcasts resumed.
First FM radio station
The founders of ANS TV also established the first FM radio station in the Caucasus and Central Asia regions. The Cingiz Mustafayev radio station, or ANS CM Radio, was founded on 28 May 1994 to coincide with the anniversary of Azerbaijan's independence day. One of Azerbaijan's national heroes, Cingiz Mustafayev, a brother of Vahid Mustafayev, was killed in June 1992 in Karabakh while filming.
Licence not renewed
The head of the NTRC, Nusiravan Maharramli, said: "Since 2003, ANS TV and ANS CM Radio have received 11 notifications from the NTRC on violating nine articles of the law "On TV broadcasting". The decision on suspending ANS broadcasts was guided by Article 22.4 of the law. This article says that if a broadcaster repeatedly violates the law and ignores warnings, its activities are to be stopped and their dedicated frequencies put out to tender.
Maharramli also blamed the ANS TV management for ignoring the regulations, saying that "ANS Group of Companies has attempted to place itself above the law. On the one hand, they presented themselves as 'the herald of democracy'; while on the other hand, they did not obey legislation."
A fierce critic of ANS TV was MP Calal Aliyev, uncle of the current president and brother of the former President Heydar Aliyev. Speaking in parliament in 2005, Calal Aliyev said that "the eight million people of Azerbaijan are grateful to me for revealing the actual face of ANS".
Aliyev accused employees of the company of trafficking in drugs, and denounced ANS management for "amorality and immorality". "ANS has turned into a hub of amorality and crime, and this TV station has to be closed. They have become too brazen and believe that nothing can be said against them," Aliyev said.
Shortly after the Aliyev speeches, the sitting president had a meeting with ANS TV chief Vahid Mustafayev and the broadcaster's deputy president, Mirsahin Agayev. This gesture was seen as a warning to the critics of ANS that the president was supporting the company.
However, analysts say that the company was taken off the air because of its coverage of the November 2005 parliamentary election. During the poll, the TV provided the Azerbaijani president's fiercest opponents with extended air time. Another reason for the closure, experts say, is that the TV was the mouthpiece of the jailed former economic development minister, Farhad Aliyev, who stands accused of plotting a coup before the November 2005 parliamentary election.
Comments on the closure
An Azerbaijani survey of November 2006 showed that 72 per cent of Azerbaijanis prefer to watch ANS news. Meanwhile, a total of 69 per cent of respondents preferred to keep up with developments in the country by watching ANS TV. Therefore by taking ANS TV off the air, the authorities were risking a backlash from the local media, NGOs and negative comment from the international community, analysts say.
The US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency that oversees the US international broadcasting effort, and of which ANS was an affiliate, expressed dismay and concern at the "sudden and forcible closure" of ANS TV. BBG Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson condemned the action as one which would deprive the people of Azerbaijan of a much needed source of independent news and information. Voice of America produces a twice-a-day television show, News Flash, which runs on ANS, in addition to the weekly show, American Review.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Acting President Jeffrey N. Trimble called the closure "another blow to media freedom in Azerbaijan, which has already been under intense attack over the past few years".
Azerbaijani political and media experts reacted strongly to the suspension. Eldar Namazov, a well-known commentator, said that the authorities would now face strong criticism. He said that an "undeclared war against independent media is going on".
The director of Turan news agency, Mehman Aliyev, said there were no technical reasons to order ANS off the air because the TV and radio have frequencies to relay their broadcasts. He said: "Therefore, I regard the closure of the ANS TV channel as another step towards suffocating freedom of speech."
li>AZERI BROADCASTING COUNCIL CLOSES ANS TV AND ANS CM RADIO
AZERI TV WATCHDOG JUSTIFIES DECISION TO TAKE PRIVATE COMPANY OFF AIR
CLOSED AZERI BROADCASTER APPEALS TO PRESIDENT FOR HELP
OSCE OFFICE CONDEMNS CLOSURE OF PRIVATE TV BROADCASTER IN AZERBAIJAN
COURT RULES TO EVICT AZERI OPPOSITION DAILY
PRESIDENT'S REACTION TO MEDIA SITUATION
REPORT FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN TV STATION AND EVICT TWO NEWSPAPERS AND NEWS AGENCY IN CRACKDOWN ON INDEPENDENT MEDIA
OSCE OFFICE PRESENTS REPORT ON AZERBAIJAN'S PUBLIC BROADCASTER
BELIEVERS ENRAGED BY ANTI-ISLAMIC PUBLICATION
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December 2006,
Issue No. 44
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AZERBAIJANI ANSWER TO OIL GLUT: BATHE IN IT
International Herald Tribune, November 28, 2006
NAFTALAN, Azerbaijan: Outside this improbable spa in a remote part of the former Soviet Union, oil rigs bob on a hardscrabble plain of rocks, shrubs and rusting industrial equipment that could easily pass for a stretch of West Texas.
Inside, Ramil Mutukhov, a lanky 25- year-old, prepares to be pampered and preened, scrubbed and peeled in a bath of pure crude oil. He undresses, hangs his trousers and sweatshirt on a peg, pulls off socks and underwear and folds up a wad of brown paper towels. He will need those later.
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