Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr.E.Huseynli / Nushiravan Maharramli, the chairman of the Azerbaijani National TV Broadcasting Council, has stated that the issue of broadcasting a new channel in the country instead of the ORT channel of Russia would be considered in the near future.
Maharramli said that it was time to open new channels in Azerbaijan. We should think about the quality of channels, instead of quantity. The chairman of the Council denied the statement that discontinuing broadcasting of the ORT channel would cause serious dissatisfaction amongst the Russian speaking population of the country. The chairman stated that the information should be accepted as normal." The Russian-speaking population in Azerbaijan is less than in those from Kazakhstan and Ukraine. These countries have banned the broadcasting of foreign channels in the countries. We do not wish to aggravate relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. We are just injecting world standards in Azerbaijan," Maharramli said.
During the meeting of the Council on 9 July it was decided to announce a tender on the broadcasting frequency of 'Samanyolu' (STV) channel of Turkey.
The Council made the decision in January 2007 to ban the broadcasting of STV and RTR- Planet and ORT channels from 1 July.