The politicization of the issue of termination of the activities of the BBC representative office in our country, distortion of the essence of the matter by the BBC, and taking into account overall double standards approach, the statement by the BBC against our country on the issue of media freedom, is regrettable and unacceptable,” said Aykhan Hajizada, Spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to a local media inquiry concerning the termination of the activities of the BBC representative office in Azerbaijan.

“The decision to close the BBC representation in our country was officially conveyed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 13 February during a meeting with BBC representatives in our country, and our position was fully explained accordingly.

It was informed that the Republic of Azerbaijan’s position and decisions on media outlets of all foreign countries are always based on the principle of reciprocity. In this context, as a result of the review process, as well as following the country’s legislation, in particular Article 11.2 of the Law on Media, it was brought to the attention that there is no legal basis for the BBC to operate as a representative office in our country.

It should be noted that the decision to terminate the representative office is not related to the correspondent activities of the BBC broadcasting company in our country, and it is planned to issue an accreditation for 1 (one) correspondent.

We would like to remind that similar decisions were taken regarding some other foreign media organizations,” Hajizada added.