Amnesty International calls on Azerbaijan to bring perpetrators of attacks
on journalists to justice

29 February 2008 [03:37] – Today.Az

Ahead of the eve of the third anniversary of the death of a prominent
Azerbaijani journalist Elmar Hüseynov, Amnesty International is
reiterating its call to the Azerbaijani authorities to fulfil their
international and domestic obligations to guarantee the right to
freedom of expression.

On 2 March 2005, Elmar Hüseynov, editor-in-chief of the outspoken
weekly newspaper Monitor, was shot and killed outside his home in
Baku. His colleagues and international press freedom organizations
ascribed his murder to the political content of his newspaper.

Amnesty International has documented cases of journalists striving to
expose the misuse of government power, who are increasingly living
under the threat of politically motivated arrests, physical assault
and even death.

The organization has noted that predominantly journalists associated
with the opposition are the victims of physical assault. As a rule,
investigations into these physical assaults do not lead to convictions,
thus contributing to a climate of impunity for such attacks.

In its latest document, Azerbaijan: Mixed messages on freedom of
expression, Amnesty International calls on the Azerbaijani authorities
to ensure a climate in which critical and alternative viewpoints can
be expressed without fear of repression.

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