The Eurovision Song Contest gives a platform to some of Europe’s outliers on free expression. Photo: Sander Hesterman (EBU) / Eurovision 2013

This weekend, Europe will once again be swept away by a sparkly hurricane of techno beats and pompous ballads, kitschy and/or traditional costumes, wind machines, pyrotechnics, heavily accented English, awkward host banter and nul points. Yes, Eurovision is upon us, Milana Knezevic writes.

While first and foremost a showbiz spectacle, if you look beneath the layer of sequins you’ll soon discover the political tinge to the continent’s premier singing competition. From the start in 1956, it was designed as fun way of testing out new broadcasting technology. Those partial to the occasional conspiracy theory would have you believe this was also a convenient cover for pan-European satellite testing during the Cold War, which is why NATO members Turkey and Israel were invited to the party.

With the lifting of the Iron Curtain and the inclusion of the Eastern Bloc in 1990, much was said about the healing, unifying power of the contest. Since then, even more has been said about the tendency of the late arrivals to share their points amongst themselves. The UK, for instance, have been vocal about political, neighbourhood voting being the cause of their recent Eurovision failings, rather than, say, sending entries like this. And while Eurovision, somewhat censoriously, prohibits political songs that has not stopped artists from trying to get their meaningful messages across.

The most famous recent example is perhaps Georgia’s pun-tastic 2009 offering “We Don’t Want To Put In’‘, to be performed at final in — you guessed it — Moscow. They were told to change the song or drop out, and ultimately chose the latter. Krista Siegfrids, Finland’s entrant this year, has warned she might be planting a kiss on one of her female dancers in protest at her country’s failure to adopt equal marriage legislation.

Most significantly, Eurovision gives its entrants prime time access to some 800 million viewers around the world – an unparalleled platform on which to promote their nation should they choose to. Many have jumped at the opportunity, chief among them the land of fire; Azerbaijan. As 2012 hosts, the Aliyev regime poured millions of their significant oil wealth into reforming their international reputation as a repressive hereditary dictatorship. The only problem with this otherwise foolproof plan was that they forcefully evicted  people to make room for an ambitious Eurovision-inspired urban renewal project in Baku, attacked journalists covering and speaking up about it, and generally conducted their notoriously human rights abusing business as usual. Not much has changed since the party left town a year ago — only this week, the regime announced they have extended libel laws to online speech ahead of October’s presidential election.

Before that, 2009 hosts Russia attempted to dazzle Europe and the world, with a spectacular stage show in the 25,000 capacity Indoor Olympic Arena in Moscow. However, LGBT activists seized the opportunity to shine the spotlight on the country’s poor record on gay rights, attempting to stage a Slavic-wide Pride parade on the day of the final. In a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression and assembly, the parade was banned. Many of the protesters who showed up anyway, were attacked and arrested. LGBT rights remain poor in Russia, with a 100-year ban on pride parades in Moscow announced only last year. The charm offensive of last year’s singing, dancing, baking grandma entry has this year been followed by the John-and-Yoko-esque ‘What If?‘, which among other gems, contains the lyrics “Together we can make a better place/ On this little island out in space”. Meanwhile, in Russia, internationally funded NGOs have to register as ‘foreign agents’, or risk fines and prison time.

You don’t have to host to be able to host to take full advantage of the promotional platform Eurovision. Like Belarus, you can condense your message to fit the 3-minute performance slot. In 2011, the country known as Europe’s last dictatorship sent Anastasiya Vinnikova to perform the subtly named “I Love Belarus“. Somehow, it didn’t progress to the final. Maybe the rest of Europe had some trouble reconciling the country described in the song, with its “fields full of gold” and “free, friendly and young people”, with the country where you’re put in prison for pointing out that your repressive dictator is, well, a dictator.

Also in the running this year is Hungary, the country with some of the most draconian press regulation on the continent. There’s Ukraine, where the former prime minister is serving a seven-year jail sentence for what is widely recognised as politically motivated charges. In Italy, the final will be broadcast on public broadcaster RAI, one half of the TV duopoly that poses a big threat to the country’s media plurality. In Greece, financial woes have also had a pretty detrimental effect on freedom of expression. Bulgaria’s web of cosy relationships between authorities and media leaves the country without an accurate picture of itself.

Yes, Eurovision is first and foremost one of the biggest parties in the world. However, as you’re watching the spectacle unfold on Saturday, spare a thought for the Europeans who are not as free to express themselves as their fellow countrymen on stage in Malmo.

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Only days after the 29 May song contest was over, an investigative reporter with the newspaper Azadliq, Ramin Deko, was arrested. Deko, who covers the regions outside Baku, was sued by MP Novruzali Aslanov, who claimed that he had been slandered, following Deko’s reporting on corruption. Deko was given a fine of 3,000 AZN (2,400 GBP). Neither Deko nor his lawyer were present at the hearing.

On 11 June, Anar Bayramli, who works for Iranian television channel Sahar TV, was given a prison sentence of two years, charged with the illegal purchase and possession of drugs. Though Bayramli was arrested in February, the sentence was not handed down until after Eurovision, after international media attention had moved on.

The next day, police arrested photojournalist Mehman Huseynov on charges of hooliganism. He was detained for several hours and not allowed to eat. In court on 13 June, Huseynov, who also worked as media coordinator for the Sing for Democracy initiative around Eurovision, denied all charges. He was released that day, but criminal proceedings are still ongoing. International pressure certainly played a major role in his release.

Dissenting media suffered another blow on 13 June. The director of the Baku Metro system, Taghi Ahmadov, sued Azadliq and as a result of fabricated allegations the newspaper was fined for 30,000 AZN (24,500 GBP). Similar to the case of Ramin Deko, Taghi Ahmadov was also claiming that he was slandered.

On 21 June, Hilal Mammadov, editor-in-chief of Tolishi Sado newspaper, was detained on charges of drug possession. If found guilty, he will be sentenced to five to 12 years’ imprisonment. The court has sentenced him to 3 months’ remand. In an interview, his lawyer, Anar Gasimili, said that Mammadov considered his arrest to be politically motivated and ‘a plot against him’ in retaliation for his human rights work.

Charging journalists for offences unrelated to their professional work is a common tactic employed by the Azerbaijani authorities, and it is an effective one in silencing them. They are charged with bribery, hooliganism, illegal possession and purchase of firearms, public order offences and drug possession.

This is not a new tactic. In 2006, Azadliq newspaper journalist Mirza Sakit was deprived of his freedom for three years, accused of possession of 10 grams of heroin. In 2010, similar charges were brought against Eynulla Fatullayev, editor-in-chief of Gundalik Azerbaijan and Realniy Azerbaijan newspapers, while he was in prison, adding considerable time to his time in prison. And, in early 2011, social media activist Jabbar Savalanli was arrested on drugs charges.

As well as passing amendments to the freedom of information act, MPs also adopted an amendment specifically pertaining to commercial secrets and corporate ownership. According to the amendment, information about founders of commercial companies and their company shares can remain private. This means the work of investigative journalists will be severely hampered and information about company practices will not be reported. The amendment is widely thought to be directly connected with the investigative work of Khadija Ismailiyov, who looked specifically at the business interests of the president and his family and revealed that a number of the country’s major companies are owned by the president’s family. But since the new amendment has been passed, dissemination of this kind of information will be a crime.

It is clear that, as Eurovision fades in people’s minds, authorities have stepped up their efforts to stifle critical media. According to Freedom House, Azerbaijan is among the world’s “not free” countries. Independent media is feeling this lack of freedom now. Like other authoritarian regimes, the Aliyev regime regards human rights organisations as “biased”, so calls for authorities to honour commitments to international standards of free expression fall on deaf ears.

Emil Baghirov is a freelance journalist and blogger from Azerbaijan. He tweets at @sakitoglu

In March, The International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan, of which Index is a member, published a report on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. Read it here.

You can find more about the human rights situation on Index’s Meanwhile in Azerbaijan page, or on the IPGA website.

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Today Azerbaijani writer and activist Emin Milli met British parliamentarians to get their support for the petition, which calls on Aliyev end violations of free speech in Azerbaijan.

Emin Milli presenting the petition to Helen Goodman MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger MP and Grahame Morris MP, alongside Natasha Schmidt from Index on Censorship and Murad Gassanly from the Azerbaijan Democratic Association

A letter has now been sent to President Aliyev with the petition, co-signed by Index on Censorship, ARTICLE 19, Media Diversity Institute, Committee To Protect Journalists, Freedom House, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights House Foundation and PEN International. It calls on the Azerbaijani president to:

• Ensure the protection of his citizens’ rights, particularly the rights to free expression and freedom of assembly

• End impunity for those who commit crimes against journalists, and allow media workers to go about their work without fear of violence or arrest

You can find more about the human rights situation on Index’s Meanwhile in Azerbaijan page, or on the IPGA website.

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The first photos of Idrak Abbasov were met with confusion and fear. The well-known Azerbaijani journalist was lying unconscious on the ground, his right eye swollen and black, his face bloodied. He was still wearing his luminous yellow press jacket. Later photos showed him in hospital, where he lay unconscious for close to six hours.

Abbasov is still in hospital, suffering two broken ribs, three fractured ribs, cranial trauma, and damage to his right eye. One week on from his attack, his vision is blurred and the full extent of his head trauma remains unknown. He will not be discharged for at least another two weeks.

Less than a month ago, Abbasov was in London, collecting the Index on Censorship award for investigative journalism. Reflecting on the increasing restrictions on Azerbaijan’s struggling independent media, Idrak acknowledged that “For the sake of this right [to the truth] we accept that our lives are in danger, as are the lives of our families”.

On his return to Baku, he continued his work, heading out on 18 April  to film the second round of demolition work in a residential area close to one of Baku’s numerous oilfields. Behind the demolition is the powerful state oil company SOCAR, which says the housing is illegal; the residents say they bought the land in good faith. When Abbasov began filming, SOCAR employees violently assaulted him. According to eyewitnesses the police looked on.

The other journalists at the demolitions, including Gunay Musayeva of Yeni Musavat newspaper and two cameramen for local media freedom NGO the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), have spoken about the chaos at the scene. Musayeva was also attacked by guards but did not require hospitalisation; the taxi the cameramen arrived in had its windscreen broken, but the men inside were unhurt.

Abbasov was visited in hospital yesterday (25 April) by a group of SOCAR officials, who told him they would be leading an investigation into the incident – the Binagady Police Department has also launched a criminal case based on charges of hooliganism, to which Abbasov objects. “This wasn’t hooliganism; this is an Article 163 case, obstruction of the lawful activities of a journalist.”

A statement issued by the local EU delegation in response to Abbasov’s assault declared the incident “yet another example of unacceptable pressure [to which] journalists in Azerbaijan are exposed”.

This brutal attack comes as members of the international press are applying for visas to come to Baku for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in May. The Azerbaijani Prime Minister has promised Eurovision organisers that international journalists will be free to carry out their work; the day before the SOCAR incident, President Ilham Aliyev himself declared to the Cabinet of Ministers that freedom of expression in Azerbaijan is guaranteed.

The day after the incident, the Ministry of Internal Affairs released a statement reporting that “200-250 residents of the settlement beat and injured [SOCAR] employees”, naming Abbasov as “a local resident”. The Azerbaijani Human Rights Ombudsman also visited him in hospital, and has called for a full and objective investigation. In a separate press release, the Presidential Administration condemned the violence, but deemed it unrelated to Abbasov’s professional activity. The Department Chief there supported statements by SOCAR claiming that the journalists had not been wearing press jackets – in the face of photo evidence to the contrary – and finished with a warning to media representatives: “journalists covering such actions must wear special clothes, [and] must not interfere in the process.”

Amidst these competing versions of events, the president’s confident assurances remain largely at odds with an often hostile reality, and international journalists are advised to be vigilant about their personal security, as well as the safety of any local staff – fixers, drivers, and so on – with whom they are working.

When asked, Abbasov said that his attack should not deter the international media from covering the event. Emin Huseynov, Chairman of IRFS, one of Abbasov’s employers, echoed his advice:

Write about Eurovision. But be aware there is a darker, sadder story behind the shiny buildings and expensive shops that will continue when the singing is over.

With seven journalists already in jail and the dust only just settling following the high profile attempted blackmail of leading investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, independent media outlets and NGOs are starting to worry about what will happen after Eurovision, once Azerbaijan is no longer under the international spotlight. Many fear that there will be a backlash against all those who have spoken out against human rights and free expression violations – and that once Eurovision is over, Azerbaijan will drop off the international agenda.

Celia Davies is Program Development Manager at the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety in Baku, Azerbaijan

The International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan (IPGA), a group of NGOs —including Index — working on free expression, wrote an open letter to President Aliyev following last week’s attacks

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Last night, the Hammersmith Apollo arena in London was invaded by thousands of Russian speakers who came to see the only UK tour date of the iconic St Petersburg rock band DDT.

The band, founded in 1980 by lead vocalist Yuri Shevchuk, has been at the forefront of Russian rock ever since.

Unlike most other Russian rock bands of the 1980s, they never traded their mother tongue for English: a difficult choice, but one that paid off in the long run. DDT also quickly acquired the status of dissidents, experiencing frequent rows with the authorities. Recently, Shevchuk’s name hit the headlines again for openly confronting Vladimir Putin in a heated debate and for partnering with Bono to save the Khimki forest from destruction.

DDT presented their new album “Inache” (“Otherwise”), surprising the public with unusual sounds and stunning visuals. In the final part of the concert, the performance shifted towards the lyrical ballads the band is famous for.

Opening the show, Shevchuk said: “Why is this show called “Otherwise”? Because many people in Russia want to live otherwise. Tonight, we will say goodbye to the glorious past and will crawl into the brutal reality of today, as we want Russia to have a brighter future”.

Index spoke to Shevchuk after the concert. The star gave a statement in support of the Sing for Democracy project, which is using the Eurovision contest to build momentum and call for human rights in Azerbaijan, the host country for the musical competition this year. Recently, two musicians were arrested after performing a concert in Baku: they have not been released yet, and according to insistent allegations they might have been tortured. In Russia, the case of punk band Pussy Riot is still firing up the public opinion. Shevchuk told Index:

“A musician is a very peculiar type of being. As in Azerbaijan, so in Russia, so in London — a musician is a being of freedom. A musician does not have any owners, except for God. You thus must not offend musicians, as they are the freest of all people. Because music is not generated from anywhere; it comes out of freedom, of inner freedom. Hence: hands off the musicians!”

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After four years of wrongful imprisonment, the Azerbaijani government has pardoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. Rebecca Vincent reports

On April 2007 in a crowded Baku court room, investigative journalist Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for defamation. He was taken into detention on the spot. This was not the first time Eynulla was targeted for exercising his right to freedom of expression, and unfortunately, it would not be the last.

Eynulla’s conviction followed years of harassment and intimidation by the Azerbaijani authorities, including numerous civil and criminal defamation lawsuits. The persecution did not stop with Eynulla himself; his father has received numerous death threats and in October 20006 he was kidnapped and held hostage until Eynulla agreed to cease publishing his newspapers.

Over the next four years, following his conviction in April 2007, while the world moved on, Eynulla spent his life in a series of small, dank jail cells, waiting for justice. Instead, his newspapers Realniy Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan were effectively shut down in May 2007 when authorities closed their offices. In October 2007, Eynulla was convicted of another series of politically motivated charges – supporting terrorism, inciting ethnic hatred, and tax evasion – and was now saddled with a cumulative sentence of eight and a half years in prison.

Eynulla’s hopes were raised as the European Court of Human Rights considered his case. However, in anticipation of the judgment, in December 2009 prison officials claimed to have “found” heroin in Eynulla’s jail cell, a move widely believed to be politically motivated. After the European Court ruled in April 2010 that Eynulla’s convictions constituted violations of his rights to freedom of expression and  to a fair trial and ordered his immediate release, the Azerbaijani authorities proceeded with the new charge of drugs possession. He was convicted in July 2010 and sentenced to another two and a half years in prison.

After the European Court’s judgment became final in October 2010, the Azerbaijani authorities engaged in a campaign of political manoeuvring at the Council of Europe, claiming that they had complied with the judgment and that Eynulla’s continued imprisonment was a separate, criminal matter which had nothing to do with his previous convictions. The international human rights community and international experts disagreed, arguing the drugs possession conviction to be politically motivated and based on fabricated evidence, intended to keep Eynulla in prison despite the European Court’s judgment in his favour.

But finally, on 26 May 2011, just 12 days after Azerbaijan’s win in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, Eynulla was released from prison. His name was included in a list of 90 prisoners granted a pardon by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ahead of celebrations to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan.

In video footage at his home following his release, Eynulla said that he would like to continue working as a journalist, explaining that “for 12 years of my life I’ve been working as a journalist…I was working as a journalist while in prison.” Indeed, Eynulla has refused to be silenced and provides a rare critical voice in a media climate marked by self-censorship and domination by the state.

Although Eynulla is now free, Azerbaijan remains a dangerous place to express opinions critical of the government, and a climate of intimidation is pervasive. Jabbar Savalan, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev and others remain imprisoned for expressing critical opinions, and the cycle of violence against journalists and impunity for their attackers continues. Eynulla’s release, however, is a step in the right direction. Let’s hope that it signals the start of the Azerbaijani authorities taking their international commitments to freedom of expression more seriously.

Rebecca Vincent is a freelance human rights consultant and expert on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan

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