Azerbaijan’s long assault on media freedom

Seymur Hezi was arrested in 2015. He was subsequently convicted of aggravated hooliganism and sentenced to five years in prison.

Azadliq journalist Seymur Hezi was arrested in August 2014. He was subsequently convicted of aggravated hooliganism and sentenced to five years in prison.

Azerbaijan has never had a strong record on press freedom. Since independence, the country’s journalists have been mistreated, while independent and opposition newspapers faced constant libel charges and other harassment from local law enforcement or criminal elements.

Journalists and outlets that support government policies are left alone to fill their pages with praise, while those who take a more critical approach are punished. Official court documents detail how journalists have been sent to prison on trumped-up charges of hooliganism, extortion, trafficking, and instigating mass protests and violence.

In practice, however, targeted journalists reported on official corruption, criticised extravagant government spending or documented illegal evictions. While the country’s leaders and key decision makers pay lip service to media freedom, the government continues to hunt down journalists, activists and human rights defenders.

Periodic waves of arrests have created a sense of fear that has suffocated the country’s journalists. Independent media — like Index award-winning Azadliq — have been pushed into bankruptcy through the withholding of funds and spurious libel litigation. Even media organisations based outside the country — like meydan.tv — have been subject to harassment and punitive investigations. Azerbaijan’s small but remaining mass of independent voices is shrinking.

The timeline, beginning in 2003, includes journalists and bloggers who have been arrested and sentenced on bogus charges.

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Khadija Ismayilova: Unsent letter from prison

Khadija Ismayilova

Khadija Ismayilova

I wrote this letter during my time in prison. I don’t remember the exact date but it was in the middle of the Ukrainian crisis and the so-called “trial” of Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev. The prison management had learned that I was writing something and sent officers in search of it. All my writings were taken including this letter. It was returned to me two months later when it was outdated no longer made sense to send. I am sharing it with you now:

There is an attempt to obscure human rights discourse with “mind your own business” arguments. As if human rights problems of, let’s say, the United States somehow justify the violation of human rights in Azerbaijan. This is another attempt to obscure the discourse by bringing up non-relevant “patriotic-sensitive” topics.

When the US Department of State or international organisations bring up the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, or the corruption of government officials in Baku, they may ask something like: “Why did you keep silent about two internally displaced Azerbaijanis who attempted to visit their homeland under Armenian occupation despite the ongoing war and were taken hostage and are being ‘tried’ by mock trial of separatists?”

The question is surely legitimate but has nothing to do with the issue of human rights violations and political oppression in Azerbaijan.

Of course the lives of Dilgam and Shahbaz matter and the world’s ignorance with regard to criminal actions of Armenia and a separatist regime in occupied Karabakh has been an issue for a long time.

I do admire the courage of Askerov and Guliyev, who ignored the “de-facto” results of the occupation and paid continuous visits to the graves of their siblings and their homes under occupation. They have been doing it for the past ten years, using mountain paths, bypassing Azerbaijani troops and occupants, right up until they were captured.

The occupation of their homeland of Kalbajar, which has never been an Armenian settlement and has never been disputed, was a crime. Their custody in occupied Shusha by a criminal regime of the separatists is also a crime. Azerbaijani society is right in expecting the world to react adequately. Separatists in Karabakh are no different from those in Ukraine’s seized regions and it is fair enough to expect that the world would react to the ongoing occupation of Nagorny Karabakh as strongly as it did react to the occupation of Ukraine’s seized regions.

However, another fair question is: what does this to do with the crimes of president Ilham Aliyev’s regime? How can it be used as justification? This lame attempt by Azerbaijan’s ruling regime to obscure the human rights discourse is a very dangerous one. Is the Azerbaijani government trying to tell the world that they must have the same expectations of the criminal regime in Nagorny Karabakh as they have from the government of Azerbaijan, a sovereign state, a member of the Council of Europe, OSCE, UN etc?

My problem is not the law self-esteem of Aliyev’s regime. I am rather troubled with what role they give to the statehood of Azerbaijan in this lame argument. No matter how low my expectations are of Aliyev and his clique, I have never ever thought of comparing the state of Azerbaijan with the criminal separatist regime.

I don’t think the officials in Baku have paid due attention to this side of the story. In the tit-for-tat business of politics, the argument put on the scale must not be the state’s dignity. The Azerbaijani government had put too much into the game of securing power for Aliyevs. As dictatorships rarely have solid arguments, I do understand that justification of oppression is not an easy task. I don’t know if leading schools of the world teach it or not. The Soviet-era schooling system of partshkola exhausted its limits long ago and its remnants are only good for addressing uneducated masses inside the country. It is for those who are oppressed so much they cannot demand their government stop using the conflict as justification for all mismanagement, corruption and crime.

The people of Azerbaijan deserve better than what they have. The world and the organisations Azerbaijan is a member of deserve better representation from the country so it would be possible to carry out civilised discussion. And more than that, the 21st century deserves better than remnants of old Soviet partshkola in diplomacy.

Azadliq: “We are working under the dual threat of government harassment and financial insecurity”

Rahim Haciyev, editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

Rahim Haciyev, editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq, accepts the 2014 Index Freedom of Expression Journalism Award. (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)

On 14 June, Qasid, an Azerbaijan’s state-owned media distributor warned that it will shut down the 2014 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Journalism Award-winning newspaper Azadliq by 27 June if it doesn’t pay an outstanding debt of approximately $12,000 it allegedly owes, Radio Free Europe reported.

Rahim Haciyev, acting editor-in-chief of Azadliq, told Index why it’s important to keep the paper’s journalists reporting.

Why is it important for Azadliq to continue its mission?

Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq is an independent newspaper that fights for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan. In fact, the main job of the press is to provide readers with objective information. Freedom of speech is under severe pressure from the government. We at the newspaper fight for freedom as well as provide readers with objective information. Our activity is of great importance because we are the only remaining press agency inside Azerbaijan that challenges the government.

Why is the government trying to shut down the paper?

Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq always follows the “golden rule of journalism”, which is to only serve the truth. In a country with wide-scale corruption and sharp limitations to human rights and freedom, it should not be surprising that the only newspaper that publishes articles about all of these issues is under intense pressure. It is common for authoritarian regimes to restrict the freedom of speech and expression in order to silence press outlets which provide citizens with objective information. This is what the Azerbaijani government attempts to do. The newspaper pays great attention to the problem of political prisoners and continues to do so right now. Each issue of the newspaper contains photos of political prisoners that the government would rather people forget.

How many people are still contributing to the paper’s coverage?

Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq, as a daily newspaper, is facing severe financial constraints. Our small staff of 20 journalists are working under the dual threat of government harassment and financial insecurity. We can’t hire more journalists because the state-owned news distributor, Qasid, refuses to pay the paper for sales. Right now it owes us approximately $50,000, but is demanding we pay them $12,000. At the same time, a lot of journalists don’t want to work with us because of the real personal and professional risk of being associated with an opposition newspaper.

Azerbaijan: Why Formula One fans are paying attention for all the wrong reasons

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“Having seen the development work in Baku as it’s neared completion over the past few months, it’s clear that the organisers have put a lot of planning and resources into the infrastructure around the circuit, and it promises to be a very significant event in the region.” So said Fernando Alonso, Formula One double World Champion and “Baku Ambassador” ahead of the European Grand Prix on the streets of the city on 19 June.

In his ambassador role, Alonso observed the progress being made on the streets of the Azerbaijani capital during an 8-9 March visit. What he almost certainly didn’t observe was the dire human rights situation in the country that has seen an assault on fundamental freedoms and attempts to silence critical voices.

The reason he wouldn’t have seen such abuses is because the Azerbaijani government has gone to great lengths to make the country appear as law-abiding and democratic in an attempt look legitimate and draw foreign money.

Azerbaijan has previously hosted other significant sports and cultural events — including the inaugural European Olympic Games in 2015 and the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 — but as son of the country’s sports minister, Aria Rahimov, said, the upcoming Grand Prix is an opportunity “to promote our city from different points: from the touristic point of view, investment”.

There are many things President Ilham Aliyev’s autocratic regime, which has been in power since 2003, would rather we didn’t promote. Here are just three.

His government has:

1) Imprisoned journalists, activists and opposition politicians. 

Over 100 political prisoners have been detained since 2011, when during the Arab Spring the country’s rulers feared an uprising at home. Around 70 of these prisoners remain behind bars.

Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova may have been released from prison last month, but two trumped-up charges against her — illegal entrepreneurship and tax evasion –remain. Her seven-and-a-half-year jail sentence has only been reduced to a three-and-a-half-year suspended term and she isn’t free to leave the country.

Many others, including journalist Seymur Hezi, are still serving prison sentences on charges that were widely condemned for being politically motivated to silence outspoken critics of the government of President Aliyev.

2) Led a crackdown on independent media outlets.

The Committee to Protect journalists lists Azerbaijan as the fifth most censored country in the world, ahead of Iran, China and Cuba. The ranking is in part due to the lack of independent media as “offices have been raided, advertisers threatened, and retaliatory charges such as drug possession levied against journalists”.

Azerbaijan’s independent media is under attack more than ever before. Most recently, editors of the Index award-winning opposition newspaper Azadliq received a letter from the Azerbaijan publishing house with a warning of discontinuation of the newspaper if it does not pay off its debts before 27 June. Azadliq — widely recognised as one of the last remaining independent news outlets operating inside the country — is convinced that the authorities are deliberately trying to put it out if business.

3) Allowed a climate of violence against critics to fester.

Torture and ill-treatment are widespread against political prisoners. Youth activists Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov were tortured in May 2016, allegedly to draw confessions for trumped-up drugs charges.

Public attacks against journalists are widespread and murder is not uncommon. In 2005, Elmar Huseynov, an independent Azerbaijani journalist, widely known for his harsh criticism of Azerbaijani authorities and president Aliyev, was murdered in outside his home in Baku. In 2011, Rafiq Tağı, who had written an article deemed to be critical of Islam and the Islamic prophet Mohammed was stabbed in a car park near his home, later dying in Baku hospital.