Expert: Agreements on financing REAL TV do not comply with legal requirements

Baku/23.07.20/Turan: Over the past seven months, various budgetary and state organizations signed contracts with one of the private TV channels for the provision of information dissemination services and pay it huge sums for this. Media expert Khalid Agaliyev believes that such actions of state bodies do not meet the requirements of the law.

Today, the State Administration for Radio Frequencies announced the conclusion of an agreement with Information Center Real Analysis LLC (“Real Təhlil Informasiya Mərkəzi”), operating in the television space called RealTV. The information was provided through the Unified Electronic Public Procurement Portal. The portal says that according to the contract signed on July 8, “RealTV, in order to effectively organize the dissemination of information to the public about the activities of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, will give wider coverage in the mass media that meets modern requirements of the work carried out by the Ministry. ... The television will carry out this work by the end of October this year and will receive 24,180 manats for it.

Earlier, the Baku Transport Agency and the State Employment Service paid RealTV respectively 70,800 and 60,000 manats for the provision of similar services.

Media expert, lawyer Khalid Agaliyev believes that it is  unambiguously incorrect  that  state institutions pay  large sums to one private TV channels by concluding a public procurement agreement. In his opinion, such contracts do not comply with legislation and media ethics.

“The media is a public institution that controls the government. From this point of view, the systematic payment by state structures of money to the media just for the information and news disseminated by them is rightly considered vicious. Such agreements are also very dubious from a legal point of view,” he said.

The expert explained his position by the norms of the legislation regulating the sphere of television and radio: "The Law on Television and Radio Broadcasting" has determined the list of information from state bodies that should be disseminated by all broadcasters. The latter, according to Article 12 of this law, are obliged to disseminate information from state bodies about emergencies, natural disasters and accidents among citizens immediately and without payment. The law contains the concept of "broadcasting products for the needs of the state", the production of which can be paid for from the budget (but this is related to another issue). This category includes products ordered by the relevant state body operating in the field of television and radio broadcasting - the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting (NCTRB) "

According to Agaliyev, the legislation on television and radio broadcasting also provides for sponsoring the development of programs that can be financed by state and local authorities if a sponsor is indicated. “However, such sponsoring of news releases, programs of political content is clearly prohibited in the law. It says in black and white that news releases and political news programs cannot be created with sponsorship financial support,” said Khalid Agaliyev.

The founder of RealTV is Iman Guliyev, who has his own business in Azerbaijan and Ukraine. He began TV broadcasting in the form of Internet television in February 2018, and in 2019 received a license from NCTRB as a national television channel.1

Many observers believe that TV director Mirshahin Agayev is using his resources against the political opposition, individuals, and organizations that are  in opposition  or alternative positions to the government. --08B—