A member of the Azerbaijani parliament yesterday called on the government to take strict control over re-broadcasts of the BBC Central Asian and Caucasus Service within the country in order to prevent the “unequivocally anti-Azerbaijani propaganda.”
“These kinds of broadcasts must be stopped,” said Mubariz Qurbanli, an MP from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. Qurbanli urged the Ministry of Communications and also re-broadcasters of the BBC Central Asian and Caucasus Service in the country to strictly monitor the allegedly biased programmes.
One of the re-broadcasters, ANS ChM Radio, has already set up deadline of 1 June for the World Service to stop the purported pro-Armenian programmes or it will end the re-broadcasts. Vahid Mustafayev, President of the ANS group, has also demanded the firing of Mark Griogorian, an ethnic-Armenian producer with the BBC Central Asian and Caucasus Service, whom he sees as the main culprit.
The BBC World Service has denied the accusations. In a letter to the Azerbaijani Embassy in London, BBC Eurasia Region Executive Editor, Olexiy Solohubenko said that “Looking back on the events around Karabakh over the last week, and even the years, the BBC is convinced that it has got the overall balance right.”
(Source: Baku Today)
on May 28th, 2004 at 02:56
With regards to the Azerbaijani government’s approach to the Armenian question, please check the English language site of the Azerbaijani Radio and TV Corp. If this is not “hate” radio I don’t know what else is.