TURKISH TV STATION PROHIBITED FROM WORKING IN AZERBAIJAN

Tert.am
12:01 17.10.09

Yesterday, Armenian journalists met a number of Turkish media
representatives within the frames of the meetings organized by the
International Hrant Dink Foundation.

Tert.am’s correspondent asked F. Mete Cubukcu, the news director of
one of Turkey’s leading television stations NTV (seen in the photo
below), how the dispute between the TV station and Turkey’s Foreign
Minister ended.

In early October, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs prohibited NTV
journalists from attending a ministry-organized press conference. It
became apparent that the reason for this was connected with
NTV journalist Bilge Egemen who had visited the Republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh and prepared a series of reports, which were
then broadcast from Karabakh. For that reason, NTV did not receive
accreditation during the time when Turkish President Abdullah Gul
was in Nakhichevan for the summit of heads of Turkic-speaking states.

According to Cubukcu, since NTV is a major broadcast station, there
can’t be any serious bans or obstacles for them in Turkey. However,
NTV isn’t allowed to work in Azerbaijan, since Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart with a request to
prohibit NTV from broadcasting from their territories, and Cubukcu
said the station is not going to dispute the decision.