Media Rights Institute about draft legislation on Public Television

We call your attention to the statement by Internews' Media Rights Institute:

The amended draft law on Public Television has been recently submitted to the Milli Majlis (the Azeri National Parliament) for review. In contrast to the 2002 variant of the law, which stood the test of the 2nd reading, the new variant recognizes public television as an entity that is separate from state television. It also defines the structures of the Broadcasting Board and the Board of Directors, as well as procedures for appointing the General Director.

If AzTV, the state-controlled television station, was transformed into a public broadcasting company, Azerbaijan could take a big step towards democracy and free media. Public Television could play an important role in strengthening the national unity; it makes the society more active and serves as a principal conduit for the nation's cultural heritage.

Public Television should serve the general public and is normally funded and controlled by the public. Public television should never serve any government, any parliament or any president. Under no circumstances should any religious or other group control public television.

Public Television should be independent. Many factors should secure the public broadcaster's full independence, especially the law. The currently reviewed draft law on Public Television fails to ensure its independence, objectivity and information balance.

There is no system in the current law that ensures a full transition of the state-controlled AzTV into a public broadcaster. It is unacceptable to create two broadcasters on the basis of AzTV - a state television company and a public broadcasting company, as the draft law suggests. It implies that the government wants to maintain control of this publicly funded broadcasting company and turn it into a new propaganda machine.

According to the law, the President of Azerbaijan will appoint members of the Broadcast Board, the public television's top management organ, which raises concerns over the Board's independent decision making in the future.

The currently discussed draft law envisions that General Director, one of the Public Television's key officials, will be selected by the Broadcast Board and confirmed by the president of the country. Therefore, it seems very dubious that this person will be able to make an independent decision. Also, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Public Television station, this person should be fully cognizant of modern television management practices and must be a real television professional.

According to the law, the government will fund public television out of its budget for 7 years. Based on the current state budgeting practices, the budget approval will most likely turn into a tedious process involving a large number of government officials, members of the parliament and the parliamentary groups, which may put the public broadcasters in a state of dependence upon the government.

The law stipulates that public television must broadcast all official statements immediately and without changes. However, the law fails to construe what "an official statement" really means. This ambiguity will set grounds for confusion between a public broadcaster and the government officials in the future.

Internews' Media Rights Institute highly values all efforts undertaken by the Azeri government and members of Milli Majlis to establish Public Television in Azerbaijan and requests Milli Majlis to take the following into account:

1. The state television (AzTV) should be entirely transformed into a public television. Article 7 of the State Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting should be removed.
2. Public Television must be fully independent of any branch of the government, any official, any power or political group, any opposition leader or any state run financial institution.
3. Members of the Broadcast Board should be elected objectively and fairly. The election process must engage all main layers of the Azeri society. The General Director should be elected and confirmed by the Broadcast Board, not by the country's president.
4. The government funding mechanism should enable the Public Television station to:
   - produce and air the high-quality programs;
   - ensure that the public broadcaster can withstand competition from other television channels;
   - eliminate the public broadcaster's dependence upon the state as funder.
5. All official statements issued by government agencies through the Public Television station should meet certain requirements and not exceed a certain maximum on a monthly basis. The authors of such statements should be clearly named.
6. All forms of control over public television, such as financial, legal and tax, must be clearly defined in the law. There should be a legal mechanism that would prevent any form of control to be used against the Public Television station.

Internews' Media Rights Institute further urges all foreign diplomatic missions, in particular the Council of Europe, to which Azerbaijan was made a member in 2001, to voice their concerns that such legislation is not worthy of a government attempting to move toward democratic ideals.

December 25, 2003