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Azerbaijanis' Media Options Narrow

By Sarah Glacel, InterMedia project manager

17 November 2008

Over the past several years, Azerbaijan has taken steps to limit the influence of foreign broadcasters in the country. The strategy has included requiring special licenses to rebroadcast news from foreign news sources such as the BBC, and suspending the licenses of foreign TV broadcasters. Further measures appear imminent, as the government recently announced that foreign broadcasters will no longer be allowed to use frequencies controlled by the government.

But what can they watch?

These changes leave Azerbaijanis with few sources of information, especially given that use of the internet remains very low (only 7 percent of the population use it at least weekly, and this rate has held fairly steady over the past several years) . The country's lack of communications infrastructure and the generally high price of going online have deterred web surfing, though the government has taken steps to lower internet prices a bit. Television remains by far the most-used media for news and information, well above second place radio.

One notable result of Azerbaijan's crackdown on foreign broadcasters: four foreign television stations, both Russian and Turkish, were forced off the air in 2007. This included two quite popular Russian-language stations, Pervyi Kanal and Rossiya. High levels of Russian-language ability (two in five Azerbaijanis would understand most of a broadcast in Russian) ensured these two stations' popularity.

Foreign Broadcast as an Alternate Source of Information

In addition to offering entertainment programs, these channels offered news which-though perceived by the international community as pro-Russian government-offered an alternative viewpoint to those found on the tightly controlled Azerbaijani channels (Freedom House rates the media in Azerbaijan "not free").

After the Russian stations went off the air in Azerbaijan, use of Russian TV for getting news and information quickly plummeted to 12 percent weekly in 2008 from 31 percent weekly in January 2007. Some viewers still receive Russian stations via satellite-and indeed, dish ownership rose markedly during this period. Cable also offers some access to foreign stations, such as Turkish KTV, but cable ownership is quite low at only 3 percent of the population.

Concerns over Governmental Control

Numbers aside, the narrowing of their media window has many Azerbaijanis worried, according to qualitative research by InterMedia and collected anecdotal evidence.

Azerbaijan's busy oil port

They're concerned about further isolation of the country and increased governmental power to dictate what information people receive. Such worries are most pronounced among media elites-educated, urban residents who are most likely to know Russian and use Russian-language sources. As one university professor, who must remain anonymous, noted in an interview with InterMedia in January: "Our link to the West has always been through Russia. When you cut off that link, where do we turn?"

Some observers fear that Azerbaijanis seeking alternative information might turn south to Iran-and there is evidence of this occurring. A recent Radio Free Europe article noted the growing popularity of Sahar-TV, an Iranian channel with content in Azeri that can be watched cross-border in Azerbaijan because of its strong signal.

Sahar-TV is available around the world in a number of languages, including Azeri, and airs political and religious programming. It was banned in France due to its anti-Semitic content. Erin Huseynov, the director of the Baku-based Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety, is quoted in the RFE article as saying, "Azerbaijanis craving alternative opinions feel happy to get one from Iranian channels, even if it comes with anti-America, anti-secular, and sometimes anti-Azerbaijan propaganda." In the past, the Azerbaijani government has accused Sahar TV of attempting to interfere with domestic politics-a charge which Sahar-TV has denied-and attempted to block its signal as well as that of other Iranian radio and television stations, without full success.

Word of Mouth as a Major Go-to Source

Given the dearth of alternative sources of news and information from electronic media, Azerbaijanis also rely more on word-of-mouth than do people in some neighboring countries. Approximately three-fourths of Azerbaijanis report using friends and family members as sources of information at least once a week-a level that has held steady over the last five years.

Reliance on friends and family sources is typical in societies with limited media freedom, since people trust information from their close associates more than what they see on TV or hear on radio. In contrast to Azerbaijan is its neighbor, Georgia. As media freedoms increased and media pluralism emerged after Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2003, reliance on friends and family for news and information in that country fell from 92 percent weekly in 2003 to 60 percent weekly in 2007.

Use of Media for News and Information

Under current conditions, Azerbaijan is unlikely to see a similar drop and may, indeed, see an increase in word-of-mouth. It cannot, however, fully replace the breadth and depth of information from alternative sources of information. Until the government allows greater media freedom, average Azerbaijanis will continue to struggle to find alternative points of view from reliable and easily available sources.