US RIGHTS WATCHDOG SAYS PRESS NOT FREE IN AZERBAIJAN

Turan news agency
21 Dec 04

Baku, 21 December: Although the constitution and legislation guarantee
freedom of speech and the press, in practice, the government restricts
these rights and self-censorship is common, the US human rights
organization Freedom House said in its annual report on the press
situation in Azerbaijan.

The report said that dozens of verdicts on libel and insult cases
were issued against independent journalists in 2003. The opposition
newspaper Yeni Musavat and the magazine Monitor were persecuted most
of all.

Before and after the 2003 presidential elections, journalists were
subjected to unprecedented pressure, persecution and arrests. In
particular, the editor of Yeni Musavat newspaper, Rauf Arifoglu,
was arrested.

The state TV channel and private TV stations of Azerbaijan are
controlled by the authorities. The access of the press to the state
printing house was restricted in 2003. The economic situation in
the country does not allow the press to survive and the authorities
are putting pressure on businessmen to discourage them from placing
advertisements in the opposition mass media. All this allows us to
say that the press in Azerbaijan is not free, Freedom House said in
its report.