Press Council statement: BBC must stop promoting Armenian separatism
Recently, the BBC TV channel, including the Azerbaijan service of this media organization, has broadcasted non-objective materials and made biased claims about the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the current situation in the area where Armenians live in the Garabagh economic region of Azerbaijan. In these materials, Armenian separatists in the Garabagh region, which is Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, are propagated and attempts are made to legalize their "activities". All this causes rightful concern and dissatisfaction, anger, and indignation in the people of Azerbaijan.
Azernews reports, the statement of the Press Council of Azerbaijan.
The statement reads:
“Such a script by the BBC is a clear disregard for journalistic principles and an insult to civilized media values. Azerbaijani society believes that journalism should not carry a manipulative mission and should not abuse the opportunities of free speech. The BBC and its Azerbaijan service ignore this request, give a platform to the remnants of the separatists in Garabagh, broadcast what they say with great zeal, and as a result, act non-objectively, and hide the real facts.
The BBC TV channel's one-sided and distorting attitude to the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, to the issues related to sending food for Armenian [minorities in] Garabagh, is unacceptable. This approach is fundamentally against the will and position of Azerbaijanis. We firmly state that the BBC's giving airtime to the representatives of the separatist forces in Garabagh, devoting space to fake sentimental scenes that are contrary to reality in the current situation is an attempt to confuse the world community and form a wrong opinion in it.
The unacceptable activity of the BBC normalizes the threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, turns it into a norm, and creates an extremely dangerous precedent for different regions of the world. This is a tendency alien to peace and tranquility, order and prosperity. It is a great pity that a media institution, which is famous in the world and considered an example in the field of journalistic ethics, has become a tool of adventurist politics.
Our society, as well as our media community, condemns these activities of the BBC and its Azerbaijan service, which is extremely indifferent to journalistic ethics, and the separate points arising from this writing, and considers it necessary to take measures against such situations. Expressing the views of the media community of our country and the interests and interests of our people in general, the Press Council concludes that the BBC's current approach to the realities of independent Azerbaijan is undesirable. Either this media organization should learn to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country by apologizing, and should be able to prove its sincere intention with its practical activities, or its Azerbaijan service should be suspended and its accreditation revoked.
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