AZERBAIJAN TOPS THE CHARTS FOR NUMBER OF IMPRISONED JOURNALISTS
By Rovshan Ismayilov

Today.Az
/
23 May 2007 [10:01]

The number of Azerbaijani journalists in prison has reached a record
high over the past month, even while one senior government official
maintains that the country’s leadership is doing everything possible
to respect press freedom.

Azerbaijan currently has the highest number of arrested journalists
among all of the 56 member states of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Miklos Haraszti, the organization’s
special representative for media freedoms, told Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev in April. As if to underscore that status, the Paris-based
media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently included
the Azerbaijani leader on its list of so-called "Media Predators."

Since then, the number of imprisoned journalists has risen from five
to seven. Most recently, on May 16, opposition newspaper Muhalifat
editor Rovshan Kebirli and correspondent Yashar Agazade were sentenced
to two years and six months in prison for allegedly slandering the
president’s uncle, Jalal Aliyev.

The correspondent had described Jalal Aliyev as "the most corrupt
person in Azerbaijan" with control of the country’s largest trading
center, AMAY. Aliyev demanded evidence for the charges, which the
newspaper did not provide.

International human rights and media watchdog organizations, the
United States, and the European Union have repeatedly urged the
Azerbaijani government to release all imprisoned journalists and to
adopt legislation that would ban the criminal prosecution of media
representatives.

Government officials assert that criticism of their stance on media
rights is off-target. In remarks to journalists on May 3, Ali Hasanov,
head of the presidential administration’s political department,
asserted that "after Ilham Aliyev took office [in 2003], he solved
all problems with media freedom."

"A few facts related to some journalists cannot be equated with
the situation in the country as a whole," Hasanov added. Imprisoned
journalists, however, were excluded from a May 8 parliament amnesty
for prisoners granted at the suggestion of the president’s wife,
parliamentarian Mehriban Aliyeva.

Reporters Without Borders appears to be in the presidential
administration’s firing line. Hasanov claimed that the organization
"is working under the Armenian lobby’s influence," and has been
"fighting against [Azerbaijani ally] Turkey for a long time." Given
this perceived bias, officials in Baku tend to disregard the group’s
assessments.

The criticism of international organizations is unlikely to die
down soon.

Late on May 20, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, citing violation
of fire safety standards, moved to shut down the offices of Realniy
Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan, two newspapers often critical of
the Aliyev administration. The papers’ publisher and editor-in-chief,
Eynulla Fatullayev, was recently sentenced to two-plus years in
prison for slander. Intervention by local journalists, human rights
activists and American and British diplomats stopped the closure,
the pro-opposition news agency Turan reported.

A rally by local journalists has been tentatively scheduled for June
14 in Baku to protest the recent imprisonments of reporters.

Perhaps the highest profile instance of press repression involves
Fatullayev, who was arrested on April 20 on charges of slandering
internally displaced persons from Khojali, a town in Nagorno
Karabakh. The suit was filed by Tatiana Chaladze, chairwoman of the
Committee for Protection of Refugees, a Baku-based non-governmental
organization. In an article entitled "Karabakh Diary," Fatullayev
published a statement by an Armenian army officer who said that
Armenian forces had kept open an exit corridor for civilians during
a bloodbath in 1992, remembered in Azerbaijan as the Khojali
massacre. The article also reported that escapees from Khojali
confirmed the existence of such a corridor. Chaladze demanded evidence
that the town’s former residents had confirmed the existence of a
corridor. Fatullayev was also charged for reportedly stating in an
online discussion forum that chaotic Azerbaijani gunfire had killed
some Khojali residents. The publisher maintains that both accusations
are a political response to Realniy Azerbaijan’s sharp criticism of
President Aliyev’s rule.

Helping to stir the press freedom controversy was a brutal beating
of the editor of Gundelik Azerbaijan on the day of Fatullayev’s
sentencing. The editor, Uzeir Jafarov, was hospitalized as a result
of injuries suffered in the attack. He claims that a police officer
who attended Fatullayev’s trial was among his assailants. The charge
has not yet been investigated.

The arrest of Sanat newspaper reporter Rafik Taghi and editor Samir
Sadagtogulu focused on a similarly sensitive topic, the role of
Islam. On May 4, the two received three and four-year prison sentences
respectively, for the publication of a 2006 article that described
Christian values as more progressive than Islamic values. Charges were
brought by the general prosecutor’s office for "inflaming religious
conflict."

Baku analysts have trouble explaining possible reasons for the
government’s apparent hard line toward journalists. The country’s
opposition is weak and fragmented, they note, and the presidential
elections are still a year off.

The April 27 decision to grant a broadcast license to private
television and radio company ANS after months of delay is cited by
Azerbaijani reporters as the only recent sign of tolerance of media
outlets that diverge from the government’s viewpoint.

Shahin Hajiyev, editor of the pro-opposition Turan news agency, which
has had its own property dispute tussle with officials, sees the
issue as part of a larger malaise concerning democratization. "It is
not only a media problem," commented Hajiyev. "It is a problem with
the general situation with democracy in Azerbaijan."