Satellite aerials scare Azerbaijani officials

I noticed a lot of satellite aerials on the roofs in Tehran in July 1994, when I was visiting Iran for the first time. The view of plenty of silvery hemispheres on the roofs of square two-floor houses in the oriental-type city was rather odd for a Baku resident then.

Satellite aerials were rather scarce in Baku then. I thought that this difference came from the more transparent character of Azerbaijan"s society in comparison with that of Iran. In fact, there were six local TV channels and almost the same number of Turkish and Russian channels in Azerbaijan in that period. There was little censorship on Azerbaijan"s TV, which allowed the citizens to obtain more or less balanced and independent information.

I also guessed that the Iranian population just got tired of the everlasting monotonous ideology propagated on TV and wanted to obtain alternative information that was not provided by the theocratic order. This explained the wide use of satellite aerials. "The people are tired of all this and want changes," I thought.

Three months later Iran"s public prosecutor office banned satellite aerials that ostensibly spoiled the view of Iran"s capital. So the aerials disappeared.

Observing Tehran from the upper storey of the luxurious Azadlig Hotel six years later, I did not see the usual satellite aerials and was sympathetic for the Iranian citizens who were not free enough to watch what they wanted to. But my disappointment and even anger did not last for long. Visiting a local Azerbaijani man in the evening, I had quite an opposite feeling. The man"s TV set showed a Turkish TV channel. The host explained this quietly, saying they had to hide their satellite aerials under some rags so that the police helicopters flying over the city from time to time could not notice them.

He also said the Iranian people still watched foreign TV channels despite the ban, while nobody recognized this. I thought that the authorities were just unable to implement the ban practically because the people were against this.

As for the illusion that the people in pro-western Azerbaijan will never need satellite aerials, it was dispersed a few years later, when the officials began to suppress the freedom of speech. Now I think Azerbaijan has surpassed the southern neighbor on the number of satellite aerials per capita. Most of the Azerbaijanis watch Turkish TV channels because of the understandable Turkish language. The same is actually observed in Iran. So a single information space has appeared in the Turkey-Iran-Azerbaijan triangle irrespective of the will of the authorities. And Turkey"s influence dominates in this triangle.

One could imagine that the restrictions imposed by the Azerbaijani government will never regard satellite aerials, but this has proved to be wrong since the Communication Minister, Ali Abbasov said the aerials should be dismantled because they spoil the view of flourishing Azerbaijan"s towns and villages. The officials also named a political reason for this - they did not like the broadcasting of Iran"s Seher TV Channel, which criticizes the Azerbaijani authorities rather strictly every day, attracting the people"s interest in the southern regions. But one can wonder why the satellite aerials are to blame for that, because Seher TV can be received with common aerials, while its satellite broadcasting is only available at the European Horbird satellite little known in Azerbaijan.

The minister"s statement followed the news on the drastic decrease in the Azerbaijani TV channels" popularity (they are only watched by 30% of the local audience from time to time).

The calls of the officials to the controlled and obedient TV channels to increase and diversify their entertaining shows have not succeeded. The audience in Azerbaijan prefers foreign TV more and more.

The head of the President"s Administration, Academician Ramiz Mehdiyev was the first to get cross, shocking everybody with his call to master the BBC and CNN standards in the autumn of 2009. This was quite an inappropriate call because these standards would make the local TV broadcast the truth, which would be unacceptable for the officials. The officials realized this danger soon and the Mehdiyev has not made statements like this since then. But his devoted assistant, Ali Hasanov complained in March 2010 that the situation was still worsening.

The Azerbaijani TV audience really needs alternative information from the relatively free world. Liberal ideas come to Azerbaijan from there, causing undesirable consequences for the authorities. Their wrath could be observed in the aggressive articles spread by the local official media against the USA and EU with their "damned" democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. The minister"s speech about the necessity to ban satellite aerials was actually aimed at suppressing these European values that cause so much hatred at Azerbaijan"s officials.

Mehman Aliyev