Recent Event Highlights: Azerbaijan - Journalist’s relatives beaten, home demolished, Azerbaijan - Reporter abducted, forced to cross Iranian border, Foreign activists attacked in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan: President admits censoring festival art, Azerbaijan: At Long Last, Freedom for Eynulla, Azerbaijani reporter kidnapped and beaten, and 9 more...
Created by indexoncensorship on Oct 17, 2011
Last updated: 10/18/11 at 01:35 AM
Relatives of an Azerbaijani journalist were severely beaten while they attempted to prevent his house from being demolished by heavy machinery. Idrak Abbasov’s house was targeted for demolition amid accusations that it had been built illegally. The attack on 9 September was carried out by security personnel.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/09/azerbaijan-journalist%E2%80%99s-relatives-beaten-home-attacked-with-excavator/
A journalist claims he was kidnapped and expelled from Azerbaijan. Yafez Hasanov, an Azerbaijani correspondent from Radio Azadliq, part of Radio Free Europe, was in Naxcivan investigating the death of airport technician Turaz Zeynalov, when he was abducted by three men.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/09/azerbaijan-correspondent-abducted-expelled-to-iran/
American journalist Amanda Erickson and British activist Celia Davies Carys were followed home and beaten by four men on 15 June in Baku. The women are in Baku to train local journalists. Carys sustained a broken arm in the attack.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/06/foreign-activists-attacked-in-azerbaijan/
Government officials in Azerbaijan have admitted that the President Ilham Aliyev had a hand in censoring the country’s entries to the Venice Biennale festival. The artwork of Aidan Salakhova included a replica of the Black Stone, a sacred Muslim relic, surrounded by a vagina-shaped marble frame. Aliyev, reportedly asked for several of Salakhov’s pieces to be covered by a black veil because he felt they might be considered “offensive to Islam”.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/06/azerbaijan-president-admits-censoring-festival-art/
Government officials in Azerbaijan have admitted that the President Ilham Aliyev had a hand in censoring the country’s entries to the Venice Biennale festival. The artwork of Aidan Salakhova included a replica of the Black Stone, a sacred Muslim relic, surrounded by a vagina-shaped marble frame. Aliyev, reportedly asked for several of Salakhov’s pieces to be covered by a black veil because he felt they might be considered “offensive to Islam”
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/06/azerbaijan-president-admits-censoring-festival-art/
After four years of wrongful imprisonment, the Azerbaijani government pardoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. Rebecca Vincent reports
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/05/azerbaijan-freedom-eynulla-fatullayev/
Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev was been pardoned by the country’s president Ilham Aliyev. Fatullayev’s name featured on a list of prisoners to be released on the morning of Friday 27 May. Fatullayev, who worked as a reporter on Elmar Huseynov’s magazine Monitor and later founded and edited Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaycan, served almost four years in prison.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/05/aerbaijan-eynulla-fatullayev-pardoned/
An Azerbaijani court sentenced opposition activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev to two years’ imprisonment yesterday, 18 May. Hajiyev used Facebook to generate support for the 11 March “Great People’s Day” anti-government protests, but was sentenced on a charge of evading military service. The charge was brought against him in January.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/05/azerbaijani-facebook-activist-jailed-for-two-years/
Eminent opposition journalist Seymur Haziyev was abducted and beaten on Saturday night (26 March). He was attacked by six masked men and tortured for two hours. The contents of his laptop were scrutinised and his two telephones were taken from him. He claims that he was told to be “as intelligent and quiet as the others”.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/03/azerbaijani-reporter-kidnapped-and-beaten/
Azerbaijani officials detained three Swedish TV journalists while they were preparing to cover an opposition demonstration in Baku on 17 April. The journalists were subsequently deported on 18 April. An official at the Interior Ministry commented that the three were deported as they lacked the proper accreditation
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/04/azerbaijan-swedish-tv-crew-arrested-then-deported/
Azerbaijani police arrested more than 200 opposition protesters during Saturday’s demonstrations in Baku. They were calling for the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev and had broken through police cordons into Fountains Square. According to the Azeri Interior Ministry, five will face criminal charges for property damage and resisting police.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/04/more-than-200-protesters-beaten-and-detained-in-azerbaijan/
Abbas Atilay, a journalist working for Radio Free Europe’s Azerbaijani service, was reportedly attacked whilst covering Friday’s protests in Baku. Demonstrators were demanding the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev and the release of journalists and activists.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/03/radio-free-europe-photographer-beaten-in-azerbaijan-protests/
On 14 February a journalist for the Azerbaijani newspaper Bizim yol was savagely attacked outside the President’s residence. A policeman dressed in plain clothes attacked the journalist while he was recording protesters who had assembled near the President’s office
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/02/azerbaijan-journalist-brutally-beaten-by-policeman/
Fifty protesters were arrested whilst taking part in anti-government demonstrations in central Baku on Saturday. The protests in Fountain Square attracted 200 members of the opposition Musavat party, but they were soon dispersed by the police.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/03/azerbaijani-police-detain-opposition-protesters/
Two youth opposition activists, Sakhavan Soltanli and Rashadat Akhundov, were detained in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Tuesday. On 4 March, youth activist and former parliamentary candidate, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, was detained and given a pre-trial detention of one month after he advertised a nationwide anti-government protest on Facebook.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/03/azerbaijan-crackdown-on-anti-government-activists-and-ngos/
This morning Baku’s Appeal Court ordered the release of blogger Adnan Hajizade, he had served half of his two-year sentence on controversial charges of hooliganism. His co-defendent, blogger, Emin Abdullayev – known as Milli, remains in prison serving a two and a half year term. The case of the two young Azeri bloggers sparked an international outcry.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/11/azerbaijan-court-frees-donkey-blogger/
Observers including Index on Censorship’s Natasha Schmidt report on the country’s climate of fear
Ahead of Azerbaijan’s upcoming parliamentary elections, nine organisations, including Index on Censorship, are launching a new report titled Free Expression under Attack: Azerbaijan’s Deteriorating Media Environment. The report findings come out of a joint freedom of expression mission to the country in September 2010 and highlight the Azerbaijani government’s failure to comply with its international commitments to promote and protect freedom of expression.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/10/azerbaijan-report-free-expression-under-attack/
In a statement released today, Index on Censorship and eight other free expression and media organisations call for the Azerbaijani government to immediately and unconditionally release imprisoned journalists, and appeal to authorities to put an end to the climate of impunity gripping the country.
The statement calls on the government to decriminalise defamation, a reform thought to be under consideration. Although a meeting with the president’s special advisor on social and political issues, Ali Hasanov, was confirmed prior to the Baku mission, his assistant cancelled at the last minute.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/09/azerbaijan-a-bleak-landscape/
Security guards who attacked two journalists may go unpunished after authorities refused to investigate the case. Elmin Badalov and Anar Gerayly were beaten by a wealthy businessman’s private security guards on 28 July.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/08/azerbaijan-authorities-refuse-to-investigate-attack-on-journalists/
The Azerbaijan Press Council have published a blacklist of 77 newspapers. They accuse the newspapers of racketeering and publishing articles affecting people’s honour. The blacklist, which is available online, lists the founder and editor-in-chief of each publication. Last year, a similar list in the Eurasian state blacklisted 95 publications.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/08/azerbaijan-blacklists-77-newspapers/
On 6 May, video footage was confiscated from Norwegian journalists in Azerbaijan. Television reporter Erling Borgen and cameraman Dag Inge Dahl were investigating the case of editor Eynulla Fatullayev— jailed in 2007 for an article deemed insulting to refugees. Upon their return to Oslo from Baku, they discovered that information relating to the investigation was missing from their luggage.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/05/azerbaijan-journalists-notes-and-footage-confiscated/
Laws were revised late last Friday forbidding journalists from filming, recording or photographing subjects without their express permission. Parliamentarian Panah Huseynov claims this is a move to restrict the freedom of press and announced he would appeal to the courts regarding the law.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/02/azerbaijani-journalists-forbidden-from-filming-subjects/
Newspaper editor Ayyub Karimov has been given a 18-month suspended sentence after being convicted of libelling the interior minister Ramil Usubov. Ububov claimed articles printed in the Azadlyg and Femida 007 newspapers were inaccurate and damaged his dignity and honour, citing article 147.2 of the criminal code, slander by accusal of committing grave crimes
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/02/azerbaijan-convicts-newspaper-editor-of-libel/
Imprisoned newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev has been charged with drugs offences after Azerbaijani authorities claim to have found heroin in his cell. After brief court session it has been ruled that he should stand under the new charge. This fresh accusation comes as the European Court of Human Rights deliberates his case.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2010/01/azerbaijan-editor-charged/
The imprisonment of two bloggers in Azerbaijan following politically motivated charges and a legal process completely lacking in transparency has again brought international attention to the deteriorating media freedom in this post-Soviet country.
Emin Milli, 30, who ran a video blog known as ANTV, received a two-and-a-half- year jail sentence, while Adnan Hajizada, 26, a video blogger associated with Azerbaijani youth movement Ol!, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on 11 November.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/11/azerbaijan-donkey-bloggers-punished/
Bloggers Adnan Hajizada and Emin Milli were sentenced on 11 November to two years and two-and-a-half years in prison respectively. Human rights groups and analysts believe the sentences are politically motivated, and that the they were sentenced on trumped-up charges.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/11/azerbaijan-donkey-video-bloggers-sentenced/
An additional charge of “intentional physical violence” have been brought against Adnan Hadji Zadeh and Emin Milli, two bloggers who have been held on a hooliganism charge since July in Azerbaijan. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, in addition to the five years they are already facing for hooliganism
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2009/08/azerbaijan-new-charges-against-bloggers/
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