The Supreme Court dismisses the complaint of ANS (updated)

Baku/21.09.16/Turan: The  Azerbaijani Supreme Court announced the verdict on appeal ANS TV on the deprivation of its  license to broadcast on the basis of presentation of the National Television and Radio. The Supreme Court dismissed the complaint. Commenting on the decision of the Supreme Court, the Vice-President of ANS Mirshahin Agayev said that the broadcaster will continue its action to restore the broadcast as part of the opportunities provided by the legislation of Azerbaijan.

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Baku / 21.09.16 / Turan: Today the Supreme Court continued the trial on the appeal from ANS TV on the decision of the Baku Court of Appeal on the deprivation of its broadcasting license.

The trial is conducted under the chairmanship of Judge Sevda Huseynova.

Recall that on  July 18 the National Broadcasting Council (NBC) stopped ANS broadcasting, accusing the channel of the propaganda of terrorism and violence, which resulted in coverage of events in Turkey during the attempted coup and preparation of an interview with the preacher Fethullah Gulen, announced by Ankara as the organizer of the conspiracy.

On July 29 the Baku Court of Appeal granted the NBC appeal on the revocation of the ANS license.

At today's meeting, the Supreme Court heard the parties' positions.

The ANS lawyer Fuad Agayev said there is no foundation for the charges of open calls for terrorism by the channel.

‘To accuse ANS of supporting terrorism there should be two factors. This call should be broadcast or the broadcasting company should publicly express support for terrorism. However, in this case, there was neither one nor the other. Therefore, the Court of Appeal decision is unfounded,’ Agayev said.

According to him, the Court of Appeal only studied the explanations of NBC and did not take any other evidence into account.

‘NBC presented the court a video broadcast from ANS continuing 13 hours 25 minutes 27 seconds. ANS asked the Court of Appeals to view the video. However, the court rejected the petition. The court cannot refer to evidence not investigated. This alone leads to the need for unconditional cancellation of the decision of the Court of Appeal,’ said the lawyer.

He also pointed out the groundlessness of claims that NBC warned ANS against the propagation of terrorism.

Thus, during the attempted coup d'etat in Turkey and in the following days there was no decision making on NBC to warn ANS.

The TV channel also gave announcements of the interview with Fethullah Gulen.

‘And the fact that this announcement took place in foreign and local media is not related to ANS,’ Agayev said.

His words were confirmed by the President of ANS, Vahid Mustafayev.

‘At a press conference with Gulen, in addition to ANS journalists, there were media representatives from 15 countries, including Turkish Ihlas and CNN Turk. Video recording of the press conference came to ANS on 18 July. However, the broadcaster decided not to air the material. Even a small portion of the material was not shown. These videos were submitted to the Court of Appeal, but the court did not look through them, Mustafayev said.

The NBC representative Togrul Mammadov said the creation of conditions for performance of a person spreading terrorism is propaganda of terrorism.

The court's decision will be announced today at 15.00. -03C-