Free and high-quality TV is impossible when journalists are in prison

The National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council (NBC) of Azerbaijan announced the provision of an unlimited license for the nationwide broadcasting of Turkel TV LLC. This company, born in June 2010 in Tovuz, was engaged in the broadcasting and production of TV programs for the central and western regions of Azerbaijan. On September 19, 2016 Türkel TV was renamed to ARB 24, its programs can be viewed in Baku. Turkel TV (ARB 24) won the tender, ahead of two competitors - Baku Art Lab LLC and Media Master LLC, presenting "a better creative plan, having a more reasonable material and technical base and professional staff potential," the press release said. In connection with the decision of the NBC, Turan conducted a short survey of the opinions of Azerbaijanis living in different countries and regions of Azerbaijan.

Lala Kuru, living in Turkey, answered via Facebook: will there be TV debates? Who will start interviewing? Will they raise social problems or continue to say "we live better than in America"? She believes that the new TV channel will repeat Azerbaijani news, replicated on other TV channels. Azerbaijanis will continue to prefer foreign broadcasts broadcasted by satellite and cable television to local television.

"Local television, you can say, does not satisfy the needs of Azerbaijanis. People watch mainly Russian and Turkish broadcasts through cable television, and in regions they catch foreign television channels via satellite dishes," the teacher of geography and author of articles in Wikipedia, Namik Mantashev, told Turan (Gakh region.) Along with Russian and Turkish TV channels, Azerbaijan's İdman-Azerbaijan is popular in Azerbaijan, a sports TV channel that shows competitions in Europe and other regions of the world. Unlike other sports channels, this uses a very simple encryption system that easily opens with modern digital equipment.

In Azerbaijan, there is a need for domestic and necessarily high-quality scientific, documentary, historical and geographical television programs, as well as operative news. The new channel Dalğa-TV which presents mainly scandalous programs did not prove to be successful by itself, broadcasting foreign films and music programs. It would be very good to watch the news blocks of the Euronews channel in the Azerbaijani language. The news on ARB-24 was more about regional events. If this channel becomes national, winning the competition, then it will have to radically expand and improve the scope of its work," N.Mantashev added.

Political scientist Leyla Aliyeva noted that an independent channel is possible only with a very high level of democracy in the country. "Even in developed democracies there is a constant struggle and monitoring that public and private channels are truly independent, and in Azerbaijan, where press freedom is suppressed and journalists are imprisoned, there cannot be free television channel. Whoever works there, the new channel will turn into another tool for brainwashing the population or controlling minds. ARB may in a more subtle way propagate ideas needed by the authorities or simply limit itself to news from foreign policy, said Aliyeva.

The general director of the ARB-24 channel is Nadir Shafiyev, who previously worked on state television and the private channel "Sara TV". There are 5 departments in the broadcasting company. The company has a pavilion of 720 square meters and equipment for creating virtual scenery. The channel operates under the patronage of SOCAR.