President Ilham Aliyev attended the ceremonial launch on 29 August of Azerbaijan's new public broadcaster.

Creation of a public television station was one of the conditions of Azerbaijan's acceptance in 2001 into full membership of the Council of Europe, but the project was delayed by President Aliyev's insistence last year that the appropriate legislation be revised.

In recent months, Council of Europe officials have repeatedly stressed that the station should be operational by the start of the campaign for the 6 November parliamentary elections. Speaking on 29 August at the opening ceremony, the station's director Ismail Omarov expressed the hope that it will provide objective and unbiased information and serve to strengthen national solidarity, zerkalo.az reported. Public television will initially broadcast 12 hours per day.