Baku -- After years of debate, Azerbaijan’s Public Television has started broadcasting. Speaking on August 29 at the ceremonial launch in Baku, station directior Ismail Omarov said that public television would provide objective and unbiased information.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev also stressed hope that public television (PTV) will serve as an independent media organization.
"I believe PTV will cover the entire political spectrum and will create equal opportunities for all candidates," he said. "I saw that the equipment of new PTV meets international standards; moreover, I was informed that only professionals will contribute to the PTV."
Creation of a public television station was one of the obligations for Azerbaijan’s acceptance into full membership of the Council of Europe (CoE) in 2001.
The station was scheduled be on the air before the October 2003 presidential elections, but was delayed when Azeri authorities and CoE officials disagreed about its management board.
In recent months, CoE stressed that PTV should be on air by the start of the election campaign for the parliamentary elections, which will be held on November 6.
According to Omarov, PTV will also broadcast programs in Armenian language for viewers in Nagorno (Dagligh) Karabakh (literally "mountainous black garden," a disputed region located between Azerbaijan and Armenia).
"We will prepare these programs to keep the Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin informed about processes taking place in the country, and to call on them for peaceful coexistence in the composition of Azerbaijan," said Omarov at the opening ceremony.
When offering advice on the Law on Public TV, CoE recommended that AzTV and AzTV2, the two state-run channels, be transformed into Public Television. But under the terms of the law signed by the President Aliyev last year, only one of the two state channels will be removed from government control. Even though CoE has expressed concern, PTV was established only on the basis of state-run AzTV2.
According to the Law on Public TV, AzTV2 will be less influenced by the government and will be free to select its own programming, but will continue to receive state financing until 2010. Thirty million U.S. dollars was allocated from the state budget to PTV.
PTV is on the air even though a dispute over the newly selected director of public channel is continuing.
Azer Hasret, former secretary general of the Azerbaijani Press Confederation, said the new general director of PTV, Ismail Omarov, is a government appointee.
"He was granted this position for his active support of the current regime," Hasret said. "This person is one-sided, biased and a Soviet-style propagandist. That’s why his selection as a general director of PTV is not appropriate."
Omarov was selected to the post of PTV director by the Public Broadcasting Council’s board in April, 2005. He used to be a journalist on state-run AzTV. Those opposed to his selection accused him of blackmailing opposition leaders and campaigning against Steinar Gil, the Norwegian ambassador to Azerbaijan who repeatedly stressed his concerns about pressure put on opposition leaders and local media.
Omarov recently told journalists in Baku that his television experience would help him in his new position.
"We will hire country’s top professional journalists and our political programs will be balanced and unbiased. Opposition members will appear on PTV so regularly that they will tire of it," Omarov told journalists in Baku.
There is wide skepticism about whether PTV will be truly independent or not. Zeynal Mamedli, a well-known TV journalist, has called for the start of a campaign to close PTV.
"PTV was not supported and initiated by the public. The public also should monitor the activity of channel, but this is not going to happen," Zeynalov told the Brosse Street Journal.
However. Jahangir Mamedli, a lecturer of journalism and chairman of the Public Broadcasting Council, stressed optimism and said that it is too early to forecast the future activity of PTV.
"Let’s not assume beforehand. We have just started to work and our staff is new. We have many professional ideas on how to make PTV real public television. This is a television channel for the public, but not for the authority or opposition. We are not going to serve to anyone, but only the public," Mamedli told the Brosse Street Journal.
When asked what he is expecting from the newly established PTV, Baku resident Salman Huseynov, 45, said he is quite optimistic because PTV is something new.
"I know that it was created with the suggestions of international organizations so that it will serve the public," he said. "I expect to see absolutely independent TV with interesting programs."
"I think everyone wants to watch something different on public TV, and I do, too. Actually It’s a good event and personally I would like to see good product," says Nigar Bakhshiyeva, 27, also of Baku. "It’s earlier to judge. Time will show."
