Azeri ANS TV lashes out at BBC for “serious digressions” in Karabakh reports

ANS TV, Baku
12 May 04

[Presenter Natavan Babayeva] The BBC has replied to a warning letter
from the ANS Independent Broadcasting and Media Company. ANS has
advised to its partner in the sphere of information to overcome
serious digressions in its information policy during the recent year.

[Correspondent, over video of ANS letter, the BBC letter, BBC
Russian.com web page] What has happened with the BBC which was famous
as a symbol of impartial and balanced journalism in its time? Listeners
to the BBC Russian Service’s morning programmes on the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict during the recent month have frequently asked this
question to ANS, which is one of the companies broadcasting these
programmes. Appealing to BBC managers on 6 April this year, the ANS CM
[radio] management demanded an explanation on the serious changes in
the BBC’s information policy as well. As a result of the monitoring,
the ANS CM management has determined the biased nature of dozens of
reports prepared by the BBC service in Baku and informed its partners
about this.

The BBC management’s attention was also drawn to the anti-Azerbaijani
activity of the editor of BBC Russian Service, ethnic Armenian Mark
Grigoryan. We should note that this individual has been popularizing a
pro-Armenian stance and trying to do his best to prove that Nagornyy
Karabakh belongs to the Armenians, using his position in the BBC and
Azerbaijani correspondents forced to work and subordinate to him.

Today we received a reply from the BBC with regard to all our
complaints. Olexiy Solohubenko, executive editor, Eurasia, BBC World
Service, writes that a special meeting of editors has been held with
regard to the ANS complaints and all facts have been attentively
examined, and though it could be regarded as strange, defects have
been discovered neither in the activity of the BBC Russian Service
nor even in reports of editor Mark Grigoryan, despite the submitted
undeniable facts.

But we again draw the attention of our companions, who have a glorious
past in information provision, to these defects. This morning the BBC
Russian Service broadcast a 20-minute report dedicated to the 10th
anniversary of the truce agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
report unequivocally presents the Azerbaijanis as supporters of peace
and poor things avoiding the war. Instigating a capitulatory policy,
the thoughts of an Armenian political scientist and of Vladimir
Kazimirov, former Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group who is
famous for his pro-Armenian stance, dominate in the report as expert
opinions. In Vladimir Kazimirov’s view, the option for the settlement
of the conflict is the determination of the Nagornyy Karabakh status
and the return of refugees only after this.

We should note that the scenario voiced by Vladimir Kazimirov is the
option which the Armenians desire. But Azerbaijan and international
organizations, including the UN, demand the return of the refugees to
their lands and only after this to determine the status of Nagornyy
Karabakh. But for some reason, this point was forgotten in the report
prepared under Mark Grigoryan’s supervision. As for political
scientist Aleksandr Iskandaryan, invited by the BBC as an expert,
he says that the Baku government is not interested in the settlement
of the conflict because if [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev makes
concessions in the Karabakh conflict, he will lose his political power.

[Voice of Iskandaryan in Russian with Azeri voice-over] First, the
Azerbaijani leadership and Ilham Aliyev have some more important
problems than the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Maintaining
power, concentrating the flow of money in the hands of their clan,
distributing posts and other related issues are among them. Second,
the Azerbaijani leadership do not need true compromise as well,
because that compromise will sweep them away.

[Correspondent] Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the
BBC’s web site dedicated to Nagornyy Karabakh. Here one can see words
of Ali Aslanov, pupil of the 10th form and a refugee from Susa [town
in Karabakh], or to say more precisely, a blue quotebox presented
as an important statement by the BBC. 16-year-old Ali says: [the
TV pictures shows words in Russian in a blue quotebox on a web page]
It seems to me that Susa is not my motherland. [The following words
were not included in the voice-over: I have been living in Baku since
seven years of age] I like this city, I can say that I do not remember
my first home. All my friends live in Baku.

In our opinion, there is no need for additional comment. Zaur Hasanov,
ANS.