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Nushiravan Maharramli clarifies why they have not announced competition to open international television â€“ EXCLUSIVE

Nushiravan Maharramli clarifies why they have not announced competition to open international television â€“ <font color=red> EXCLUSIVE </font>

05 March 2009 16:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva â€“ APA. â€œAzerbaijan is the most powerful state of the region from economic, political and military aspect. Azerbaijan has also become a serious country in terms of energy. With this respect, the issue on opening television to inform the world about Azerbaijani truths and Karabakh problem in foreign languages has been discussed for a long time. But it is difficult to carry out this mission. This is a serious issue and requires the appeal of serious bodies. ATV channel has undertaken this serious mission and we have supported them,â€ chairman of National Television and Radio Council Nushiravan Maharramli told APA exclusively after the councilâ€™s meeting on giving license to ATV International (ATV Int) that will be broadcasted through satellite.

Maharramli clarified why ATV Int had not been given frequency.
â€œThe council gave permission to ATV Int for direct broadcasting through satellite. Thatâ€™s why we did not give license to them. They will sign contract with other satellites. As we did not give the frequency, we did not announce competition. We would announce competition, if ATV Int had terrestrial broadcast. We had serious discussions about it with the members of the council. With unanimous decision of the council members we gave this permission to ATV Int without competition and frequency,â€ he said.

The council chairman said NTRBC received many requests for international television, but those were not official requests and therefore the council didnâ€™t address it. â€œOnly ATV officially requested and we positively accepted this request. It is very serious issue and probably ATV also realize it responsibilityâ€.
The channel will decide how many languages it will use on ATV International. It expected to use English, Russian, Farsi, Turkish and Armenian. â€œThe channel will not produce news programs only. It will broadcast musical programs, historic films about Azerbaijan and movies. The creative woks will be determined by the channel because it is private organization. I think ATV has developed its technical and personnel opportunities recently. I believe that ATV will overcome this jobâ€.

Speaking about the requests of other local channels to open international television, Maharramli said it didnâ€™t need to run to extremes. â€œToday ATV requested and we supported it. Letâ€™s see what will happen. There is no other request yetâ€. The Council will control the channel despite it will broadcast via satellite. Maharramli said the channel would reach the satellite from Azerbaijan and therefore there would be mechanisms of public control. â€œWe will elaborate the mechanisms of control. There are no serious problems regarding this. Our technical opportunities enable us to provide control over ATV Internationalâ€.