VZCZCXRO6134
OO RUEHBC RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHKB #0541 0971356
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 071356Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BAKU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0096
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

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