IRAN JAMMING AZERBAIJANI TV SIGNALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 000541 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, NEA E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/07/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PROP ECPS IR AJ SUBJECT: IRAN JAMMING AZERBAIJANI TV SIGNALS Classified By: DCM Jason P. Hyland per 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (SBU) The owners of independent ANS TV (by far the most independent channel in Azerbaijan) told PAO that Iran has been jamming its broadcasts in southern Azerbaijan for months. The owners said that ANS had switched frequencies once or twice but the Iranians, with much more powerful transmitters, have been intentionally jamming their signals. That this was happening to both ANS and Lider TV (also independently owned but with a completely pro-GOAJ slant) was confirmed by both the Frequency Commission and the head of the state-run National Television and Radio Council. He noted that Azerbaijan has similar problems with other neighbors (even Kazakhstan across the Caspian) but said that the situation with Iran is the worst, describing it as "ideological warfare." He said that there was a danger of this case escalating tit-for-tat, adding that he hoped the Ministry of Communications would be able to resolve this diplomatically. ¶2. (C) Opposition MP Iltizam Akbarli, from southern Azerbaijan's Imishli region, separately raised this issue with Pol/Econ Chief. Akbarli confirmed that Iran had been jamming ANS and Lider television transmissions for some time. As a result, the only television channels available in southern Azerbaijan are state-run AzTV and the Iranian channels. Akbarli worried about the effects of the jamming on the people of southern Azerbaijan People there, he said, have access to nothing but the GOAJ side of the story, a significant detriment to democratic development. He also said that faced with the choice of stultifying GOAJ news broadcasts or more interesting Iranian programs, Akbarli's constituents increasingly are tuning in to Iranian programs. He noted that some Iranian programs are filled with messages of religious extremism and incitement to violence, messages he feared could be embraced by the traditionally conservative communities of southern Azerbaijan. ¶3. (SBU) A USAID contractor who prepared a frequency map of Azerbaijan for the Ministry of Communications in the summer of 2005 said that the GOAJ had attempted to block Iranian jamming by constructing nine transmitters near the border, which apparently have now been overpowered. The contractor also said that the Iranians had a "barrier" of transmitters along their northern border, with signals reaching all the way to Baku. The signals, however, are strong enough for transmission only as far north as Ganja, Baku's second largest city. HARNISH