Day.Az, Helsinki, 05 Dec 2008 – “I have met today with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. The main topic of the meeting is the shutdown of foreign radio stations in Azerbaijan, as was announced by chairman of the National Television and Radio Council Nushirevan Meherremli. I voiced my deep concern about this issue, in the main, because this decision will reduce existing pluralism”.
Day.Az correspondent from Helsinki reports that the due announcement was voiced by OSCE representative on freedom of media Miklos Kharashti in the interval of the session of the foreign ministers of the OSCE member-states.
“The news radio stations are real medias which prevent information. Yes, there are internet pages, but radios are the main source of information, while web pages and just additional sources.
The argument that Azerbaijan did the same with foreign TV channels is baseless, these are different things. TV channels can be watched on satellite. TV channels are mainly entertainment, while news radio is a different thing. Even Elmar Mamedyarov listens to BBC news in the morning. I do not think that later he reads news from internet. And I am sure that this is an actual state of affairs for everyone.
As for the legislation about broadcasting, its compliance with OSCE norms is among the main commitments before the OSCE. Issues of pluralism and freedom of information are main issues for OSCE. Thus, it is necessary to introduce amendments to this law, as the Azerbaijani population has a right to receive news from these radio stations”.
Kharashti noted that he is not concerned with the influence on the suspension of activity of radio stations in the bilateral relations between Great Britain and Azerbaijan or the United States and Azerbaijan: “I protect the OSCE principles. Minister Mamedyarov promised me that the work on these issues will further be held”.
As for imprisoned journalists, he said: “I am glad that Ganimat Zahid and Mirza Sakit were allowed to attend their father’s funeral. This was a humane step and I do hope that this will be followed by release of journalists and thus this sad story of their arrest will end”.
Number of View: 4891