By Tageszeitung
On May, 22-26 Baku will host the international music contest ‘Eurovision – 2012’. Azerbaijan won the right to conduct the contest after the Ell&Nikki duet won the contest in Dusseldorf. “VK” publishes an interview by the chief editor of the Tageszeitung, Jan Fedderson with Thomas Schreiber, ARD coordinator entertainment, responsible for the channel’s ‘Eurovision’ coverage.
- Herr Schreiber, the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan is known to be doubtful. Is ARD ready to take the responsibility and go to Baku ‘Eurovision’ under these circumstances?
- Yes. Let’s be honest: if not for the ‘Eurovision’ there wouldn’t be such an increased media attention to the general situation in this state now.
- Azerbaijani government longs for positive media reports…
- We’ll wait and see. There is no doubt that the state wants to show its 20-years’ achievements and wants everyone to find it modern and transparent. Some 1550 journalists will come to Azerbaijan to cover the musical contest, but they will certainly pay attention not only to the bright show, but also to the people of the country, to the stories they have to tell. And that means there will be an increased attention to the opposition and human right activists.
- The European Broadcasting Union, responsible for the ‘Eurovision’ contest, referred to the contest of 1969, which was held in Francoist Spain addressing the issue of holding contest in Azerbaijan. Do you see any parallels?
- I think it was an irresponsible comparison. Spain used to be a country that had the most cruel capital punishment – guillotine – till 1974.
- What do you mean by that, exactly?
- We should see that we remain fair both to the contest and to Azerbaijan. I won’t take up the delicate task to define the exact level of human rights violation in Azerbaijan, but I had an impression that the scale of assessment for ‘Eurovision’ is slightly different for that of the Olympics.
- You mean the summer Olympics in London?
- No, I mean the one that was held almost 4 years ago in Beijing. According to the international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, China executes up to 4,000 people a year, but despite that all the world’s nations participated in the Olympics there. And apart from sports reports, a great deal of attention was drawn by social and political situation in the country.
- This summer there will be European football Cup in Poland and Ukraine…
- Ukraine is a member of European Council, but still the country’s ex-PM is sentenced to a lifetime in prison. But I still haven’t seen any letter from BRD human rights commissioner to the footballers.
- You’ve said recently that if ‘Eurovision’ will ever take place in Minsk, ARD won’t go there.
- Yes, Belarusian state is a pure dictatorship. I wouldn’t want to participate in it.
- So let’s compare the two: why would you boycott Belarus, but not Azerbaijan?
- One should put the question in a different way: what are the criteria that could measure a state’s fitness for the ‘Eurovision’ contest. If a state has won the contest it automatically acquires the right to become the host next year. So one should resolve the problem on the level of the participation of the country in question in the contest in the first place. From what I’ve heard there’s a very little risk of ‘Eurovision – 2013’ being hosted by Minsk.
- Nevertheless, are there any essential distinctions between the regimes of Minsk and Baku?
- Yes, there are. Azerbaijan was officially been a Soviet Republic for 70 years, but it fact it was a sort of Russian colony. The state became independent 20 years ago, and it is situated in ne of the most restless regions of the world. It boarders with turbulent North Caucasus in the North, with Iran in the South (and Baku blames Teheran for organizing an attempt on the life of the Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan). Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan situated across the Caspian Sea also can’t be called model-democracies. So to whom should this country look up to?
- To whom?
- Only to the West. Baku is a city of European essence. Despite that fact that it lies on the other side of the Caucasus, and the Caucasus is the border between Europe and Asia, culturally Baku had been closer to Europe in the epoch before the First World War. And it wants to go back. And it would be naïve to think that Azerbaijani government what can the attention connected with the ‘Eurovision’ do in this regard. Azerbaijan has also filed a request to host 2020 Olympics, and they hope that the ‘Eurovision’ will promote the country’s image, not damage it. And we can help them.
- Did you notice if your Azeri colleagues from the “Ictimai” channel were seized by these thoughts?
- There are different people in Azerbaijan, it’s not all black and white. Some officials still think in Soviet terms, others are completely different. One can turn from Soviet culture to modern democratic civic society in a blink of an eye. At least one generation should change fro that.
- Kazakh President said almost the same thing during his recent visit to Germany: the West shouldn’t be so patronizing as even here the democracy didn’t get built in one day. Do you share this point of view?
- No, I don’t. Because such an argument can be abused and used to hamper democratic development. So the question is: what is the normal rate of development for a post-Soviet society? And I would like to cite a grotesque example: imagine is a reporter came to Germany and started regarding our country only in the light of the Nazi crimes. It would be like seeing a tiny fragment of truth instead of the whole picture.
- You mean that he Azerbaijani reality is’t only about human rights violation?
- It is far more complex. Yes, arrests of bloggers and reporters are unacceptable. Yes, the freedom o speech should be observed. Democratic elections must be held. A parliament without an opposition doesn’t deserve its name. But there is another thing: before the ‘Eurovision’, how often did they right about Azerbaijan in German papers? Not so often, really.
- So the statement that the music contest has nothing to do with politics isn’t correct anymore, as I see?
- ‘Eurovision’ is a musical show; more that 120 million people in more than 50 states watch it. But the political situation in the host-state can’t be left without attention and we’ll cover it too.
