"International radio stations will be aired in Azerbaijan in the frames of inter-state agreements. 'International radio stations will be broadcast in Azerbaijan if we get inter-state agreements with them,' said the President of TV/Radio Broadcast National Committee of Azerbaijan Nushireva Mageramli." Panorama.am, 20 January 2009. This may mean that if Voice of Azerbaijan can get access to FM stations in the foreign stations' countries, the foreign stations can have access to FM in Azerbaijan.
     "The Baku police prevented an unauthorized protest by the opposition Musavat party on Jan. 21. Roughly 20 Musavat members hoisting the slogan 'Return FM Frequencies to Foreign Stations!' protested against the suspension of foreign radio stations broadcasting on Azerbaijani national frequencies." Trend News Agency, 21 January 2009.
     EU commissioner for external relations and the European neighborhood policy Benito Ferrero Waldner" "Azerbaijan is an economically developed country and freedom of speech should be respected here." Trend News Agency, 21 January 2009.
     "In the first week after the 1990 [Soviet] invasion, local state television was shut down. Soviet agents had blown up the Baku broadcast transmitters hours before the tanks rolled in. Only the Azeri-language programs of Radio Liberty, broadcasting from Munich, broke through the media blackout. The short-wave broadcasts of Radio Azadliq were a lifeline to the outside world, and a symbol of hope and the dream of freedom for the protesters. It is sadly ironic that now -- 19 years later -- the Azerbaijan government has banned international broadcasting in the country and Radio Azadliq, its mission far from accomplished, is again broadcasting only on short-wave frequencies." Commentary by Kenan Aliyev, director of RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service, RFE/RL 20 January 2009.
     Update: "This week the issue (including with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan) was also raised by assistant deputy US secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia Mathew Braiza. In particular the parties are discussing the matter of further broadcasting of foreign state radio stations BBC (UK), Voice of America and Freedom (US). Although they are rarities of the cold war, the US and Europe consider them as near as the only source of qualitative information for Azerbaijani citizens. At the same time the zealots of 'freedom of word' and 'access to information' do not conduct speech in support of close private commercial radio stations (for example, France’s Europe+), although audience of Europa+ was larger than audience of BBC, Vo[i]ce of America and Freedom rolled into one.'" ABC.az, 22 January 2009.