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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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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Six years later, his murder remains unsolved, casting a long shadow over the country’s civil society.

It is in this climate that the case of imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev has become such a focal point for debate on the deteriorating health of free speech in Azerbaijan. Fatullayev, who worked as a reporter on Elmar Huseynov’s magazine Monitor and later founded and edited Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaycan, has served almost four years in prison. His criticism of Azerbaijani government — and his dogged investigation into the murder of Huseynov — have made him deeply unpopular with authorities.

This week, free speech advocates are appealing to European ministers to place Fatullayev’s case at the centre of their human rights agenda at next week’s Council of Europe committee of ministers meeting. Index on Censorship, ARTICLE 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Media Rights Institute, currently in Strasbourg to meet delegations from several countries, are calling for the immediate release of Fatullayev and again draw attention to the Azerbaijan government’s violation of their commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights. Its refusal to uphold an April 2010 European Court of Human Rights decision ruling that Fatullayev should be released has met with international condemnation.

In addition to drugs charges brought against him while already in prison — widely believed to fabricated — Fatullayev has also seen retroactive charges brought against him for offences that predate the alleged crimes for which he was originally imprisoned.

Since Elmar Huseynov’s murder, violence against journalists has become more commonplace and a culture of self-censorship has emerged.  Many journalists working in Azerbaijan are afraid to tackle some of the country’s most  taboo subjects — corruption, insulting the president’s family, religious freedom — for fear of physical attacks or arrest.

There are signs, too, that the government is again targeting youth activists. Although the release of activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade at the end of 2010 was a cause for celebration, charges against them remain. And the arrest of 20-year-old Jabbar Savalan in February demonstrates that the government is not about to back down when faced with overt criticism. Savalan was arrested after he called for a “day of rage” in Freedom Square in Baku on his Facebook page, inspired by recent protests in the Middle East.

Read more about free expression in Azerbaijan here

A profile of Eynulla Fatullayev is featured in ‘Beyond bars’, the 4/2010 issue of issue of Index on Censorship magazine. Click here to subscribe

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Punishing dissent
Prior to his arrest in April 2007, Fatullayev — an investigative journalist and staunch critic of the Azerbaijani government — was the chief-editor of two of the country’s most outspoken and popular newspapers, Realniy Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan. He is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for defamation, terrorism and tax evasion offences. Both of his newspapers were effectively closed in May 2007.

In a letter addressed to the international community last week, Fatullayev said, “I am on open-ended hunger strike to demand my immediate release from jail, as I do not see any other ways to protect my rights”. Expressing solidarity with Fatullayev, a group of opposition journalists have also gone on hunger strikes, urging the ECHR verdict be implemented.

International rights groups call the charges against Fatullayev fabricated and politically motivated. Last week, 11 international human rights and media watchdogs — including Index on Censorship — issued a joint media report on Azerbaijan and also sent an open letter to President Aliyev demanding the immediate release of Fatullayev. The report highlighted the state’s failure to honour its international obligations to promote and protect freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. “The actions taken by the Azerbaijani authorities to restrict freedom of expression have significantly damaged Azerbaijan’s international reputation, placing it firmly in the camp of ‘worst offenders’,” the report said.

The authorities effectively use criminal libel and defamation charges to obstruct investigative journalism, prevent public debate and stifle open criticism of the government. Alongside Fatullayev, there are two young bloggers who remain behind bars on dubious charges. Last week Azerbaijan was ranked 146th out of 175 countries in Reporters Sans Frontieres’ latest Press Freedom Index.

Paralysed media in pre-election period
With less than two weeks to go until Azerbaijan’s parliamentary poll, the state’s tight grip on the media and its hostility toward independent and opposition views will prevent a free and fair election. Journalists, human rights defenders and opposition activists who publicly criticise the government risk violence, threats and arrest. Opposition journalists acknowledge that they frequently self-censor, avoiding criticism of government policy out of fear of potential legal and physical repercussions.

Citing the restrictive media environment ahead of elections, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Election Observation Mission, the European bodies that will monitor the polls, said the de-facto government monopoly on broadcast media has ensured citizens get “very limited access to diverse political views in the broadcast media”. Aside from a small number of opposition dailies, the mainstream media totally fail to provide access to political opinions outside the current establishment. Most Azerbaijanis get information about socio-public events from the broadcast media, which were and are firmly under the control of the ruling regime. This effectively prevents the political opposition from mounting effective campaigns to mobilise citizens as voters, or as potential protesters against election fraud. In this election, even less information is available in the country after important and longstanding radio channels broadcasting independent information in Azerbaijani, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and the BBC, lost their licences to broadcast on their normal FM frequencies in January 2009.

There is little space for opposition candidates to air their messages and the lack of public debate has long undermined the public’s trust in the legality of the elections. In fact no previous election in Azerbaijan has ever been judged as free and fair. The polls have always been damaged by the lack of press freedom, intervention by local authorities or police, restrictions on freedom of assembly and an electoral commission crammed with government supporters.

“A vibrant public debate is crucial to free and fair elections,” said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But you can’t have a free and fair vote when the people who report the news are in jail or have been harassed into silence.”

Vugar Gojayev is a freelance journalist writing on the developments in the South Caucasus

Read a new report from Index on Censorship and partnership organisations, Azerbaijan: Free expression under attack

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Rights campaigners in London protest against continued persecution of jailed editor

Freedom of expression campaigners will protest on Thursday 3 June outside the Azerbaijani embassy in London, calling for an end to the persecution of jailed journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.
Amnesty International UK, ARTICLE 19, English PEN and Index on Censorship will also hand in a letter to the embassy — signed by key literary figures including Monica Ali, Alan Ayckbourn, William Boyd, and Philip Pullman — calling for Fatullayev’s immediate release and for new politically-motivated charges against him to be dropped.

Newspaper editor Fatullayev, 33, is currently serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence based on trumped-up charges of terrorism and defamation. In April this year the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that he had been wrongfully imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of expression and that he should be immediately released.

Despite being a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Azerbaijan authorities responded by questioning the court’s authority. Chingiz Esgerov, Azerbaijan’s representative to the ECtHR, argued that “the ECtHR has no authority to give orders to the courts of other countries” and “the country’s legislation does not envision the release of a prisoner only on a basis of the ECtHR.”
After the ECtHR began reviewing his case, Eynulla Fatullayev was further accused of possessing illegal drugs – a charge widely believed to have been fabricated in order to keep him in prison.

In March Eynulla’s father received a death threat for speaking out about his son. This is the third of such threats he has received.

Eynulla Fatullayev received an honourable mention before an audience of the UK’s leading journalists at last night’s Amnesty International Media Awards. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Amnesty International Special Award for Journalism Under Threat.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

“The continuing imprisonment and persecution of Eynulla Fatullayev brings shame on Azerbaijan. It’s amazing that the authorities are so scared of the words of one journalist that they would damage their international standing in this way, even questioning the authority of the European Court of Human Rights.”

ARTICLE 19 Executive Director Agnès Callamard said:

It is extremely disconcerting that Emin Fatullayev has received death threats for speaking out on behalf of his son. The Azerbaijani Government has the duty to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. They should publicly condemn such threats, investigate them thoroughly, and provide adequate protection to Emin Fatullayev.

Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee and Deputy President of English PEN Carole Seymour- Jones said :

Eynulla Fatullayev is just a journalist doing his job. He should be released immediately and these politically-motivated charges against him should be dropped.

John Kampfner, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship said:

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right which journalists, human rights defenders and all of us should be able to exercise openly and without fear of reprisals. Azerbaijan must fulfil its international obligations to guarantee this right.

The persecution of journalists such as Eynulla Fatullayev is commonplace in Azerbaijan. The authorities have curtailed freedom of expression and have shown persistent hostility towards independent and opposition media. Journalists continue to be harassed, threatened, attacked and imprisoned for conducting their professional activities. Defamation and false charges are increasingly used to silence critical voices.

Demonstration details:

What:    Protesters with placards demonstrating outside embassy and handing in letter to ambassador

When:    12 noon to 1pm, Thursday 3 June

Where: Opposite the Azerbaijan Embassy, 4 Kensington Court, London, W8 5DL

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Yesterday, the European Court Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the Azerbaijani government must release imprisoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2007 after being convicted of defamation, terrorism and tax evasion charges, convictions human rights groups call politically motivated. The court ruled that Fatullayev was currently serving the sentence for offences which violate the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered that he be paid €25,000 as compensation. The ECHR affirmed that Fatullayev’s rights to freedom of expression and a fair trial have been contravened in Azerbaijan, which has been a member of the Council of Europe since 2001.

The news raised mixed hopes in Azeri society. Though the country’s authorities say they will challenge the ruling, human rights activists believe the government may be forced to comply with the judgment.

Fatullayev’s father was pleased with the verdict but expressed fears said the authorities might attempt to hamper Eynulla’s release from jail . “The ruling verified that my son was innocent and jailed just because of his journalistic activity. I thank the international community in their firm and objective stance and unanimous support,” he said. Well-known journalist Shahveled Chobanoglu argued that “the verdict was an important victory for the suppressed activists and outspoken journalists” in Azerbaijan, which has a long record of stifling at the media freedom and suppressing dissent.

But, the government seems a long way from accepting the ECHR’s verdict. Chingiz Esgerov, Azerbaijan’s representative in the ECHR, argued that “the ECHR has no authority to give orders to the courts of other countries” and “the country’s legislation does not envision the release of a prisoner only on a basis of the ECHR”. The government has vowed to take the case to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR “to support the interests of Azerbaijan Republic”. In practice, the decision of the ECHR comes into force within three months of its issuance provided that a motion is not presented to consider the case in the Grand Chamber.

Intigam Aliyev, a well-known lawyer said the verdict will not change, even if the authorities manage to appeal it before the Grand Chamber. “Regardless of any further court instances at the ECHR, the ultimate decision will be in favor of Fatullayev, as the gross violation of his rights is crystal-clear and was substantiated by the objective and professional lawyers of the ECHR”.

Read more on the Eynulla Fatullayev case and his most recent trial on “trumped up” drugs charges

Vugar Gojayev is a freelance journalist writing on the developments in the South Caucasus

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