Details added (first version posted on 13:14)
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 19
Trend:
Broadcasting of ANS TV channel has been suspended for one month, said Azerbaijan’s National Council for Television and Radio July 19.
The National Council for Television and Radio had a meeting on July 18.
The Council adopted a decision to suspend the broadcasting of ANS TV channel from 18:30 (UTC/GMT +4 hours) July 18 for a period of one month and to file a lawsuit to the court for withdrawing the TV channel’s license dated Oct. 25, 2013.
This decision was made given the appeal of the Prosecutor General’s Office, dated July 18, 2016, as well as the requirements of the articles 11, 23 and 32 of the law “On the Television and Radio Broadcasting”, in order to prevent the provocation aimed at undermining the strategic cooperation relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan and not to allow the open propaganda of terrorism.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev unequivocally assessed the latest developments in Turkey as a coup attempt, a heinous crime against Turkey’s statehood, Turkish people, their will and choice.
President Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan stands by Turkish state and people, fully supports the Turkish government democratically elected by the citizens and gave necessary instructions to Azerbaijan’s relevant bodies in connection with this.
Despite the repeated warnings, ANS continued its activities on promulgating terrorism.
Turkey’s government bodies and embassy appealed to Azerbaijan’s state structures, expressed deep concern over the issue and asked to take relevant measures.
According to the Article 11 of Azerbaijan’s “Law on the Television and Radio Broadcasting”, the Azerbaijani state executes a control to prevent the propaganda of terrorism, violence, cruelty, discrimination on ethnic, racial and religious grounds through television and radio.
The operation of a TV or a radio broadcaster can be temporarily suspended if it supports open calls for overthrowing the state system by using violence, infringement on the state’s integrity and the country’s security, escalating national, racial and religious hostility, riots and terrorism, or if it deliberately creates conditions for voicing such calls.