Azerbaijan to bar foreign broadcasts on local radio stations

The opposition media denounced the move as part of a government campaign against the freedom of speech.

Nushirrin Maharramov, the head of National Broadcasting Council, said that local broadcasters lacked proper licenses allowing them to air programs of the foreign radio stations. The three radio stations would be barred from airing their program through local broadcasters starting Jan. 1.

Maharramov told The Associated Press that the British Broadcasting Corp. and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in the Czech capital, Prague, would be able to continue broadcasts using their own frequencies allotted to them by Azerbaijani authorities. He said Azerbaijani authorities were ready to discuss providing a frequency to Washington-based Voice of America, which does not have one.

"We are ready to provide additional frequencies to foreign radio stations if necessary," he said.

BBC World Service said in a statement that it was "watching the situation carefully" and wanted "to continue to offer our listeners in Azerbaijan independent and impartial news and information."

Asked why the foreign stations that had been using local broadcasters for years were suddenly barred from doing that now, Maharramov responded that his National Broadcasting Council had been created three years ago and spent the first two years in tackling organizational issues. "We have stepped up our activities during the last year," he said.

Editors of leading opposition newspapers and media freedom advocates issued a statement late Tuesday voicing concern about official plans to end foreign broadcasts, and promised to launch a campaign against what they said was increasing official pressure on freedom of speech.

Pressure on independent media and attacks on opposition journalists are frequent in this oil-rich Caspian Sea state, which has been ruled with a tight grip by President Ilham Aliev since 2003, when he succeeded his long-ruling father in flawed elections.

Ali Kerimli, head of the leading opposition Popular Front, said Wednesday that the decision to ban foreign broadcasts reflected authorities' attempts to "restore the Soviet-style authoritarianism," and said the opposition would launch hunger strikes and demonstrations against what he called an official crackdown.

Kerimli accused the government of trying to weaken the opposition and independent media before the 2008 presidential vote. He pointed at a recent official lawsuit intended to expel the opposition Azadliq newspaper from its offices as an example of growing government pressure on critical voices.

"The authorities are persecuting the Azerbaijani opposition and the media to make them weak by the time of presidential election," Kerimli said. The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/