After four years of wrongful imprisonment, the Azerbaijani government has pardoned journalist Eynulla Fatullayev. Rebecca Vincent reports
Azerbaijan: At Long Last, Freedom for Eynulla
read more
CATEGORY: News
Azerbaijan: Eynulla Fatullayev pardoned
Azerbaijan journalist Eynulla Fatullayev has been pardoned by the country’s president Ilham Aliyev, according to a report on the News.az website.
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.
Index on Censorship, English PEN, Article 19 and Amnesty led an international campaign for the 34-year-old editor’s release.
Natasha Schmidt, Assistant Editor of Index on Censorship said:
“We’re absolutely delighted that Eynulla will be freed. This comes more than a year after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he should be released. Only last month Index lobbied European leaders to ensure that this judgement was enforced and that freedom of expression is upheld. It is of concern however that bloggers and Facebook activists are still in prison.”
Britain: Billionaire battleground
A US-based billionaire is using English courts to force American online publishers to expose the identity of users. Judith Townend reports
Brazilian anti-logging activist shot dead
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, an outspoken opponent of illegal burning and logging in the Amazon rainforest, has been shot dead in an ambush near their his home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá, Brazil. His wife was also...
Cisco sued by Falun Gong members for “aiding” Chinese censorship
A federal lawsuit filed last Thursday against Cisco Systems claims the computer networking company helped design the controversial “Golden Shield” firewall used by the Chinese government to censor the internet and monitor dissidents, such as...
Twitter, free speech, injunctions and the Streisand effect
US view: The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jillian York and Cindy Cohn examine the Ryan Giggs affair
Press TV could face fine for Bahari prison interview
Iran's state-run English language channel Press TV could face a hefty fine from UK TV regulators after it broadcast a prison interview with jailed journalist Maziar Bahari. Ofcom found that the station had breached Bahari's rights by broadcasting...
Belarus: European Union toughens sanctions
As Belarus’s Central Bank devalues the ruble, the European Union has expanded sanctions and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) invokes human rights mechanism. Mike Harris reports
Uganda: Museveni crackdown shows limits of Twitter revolutions
Breathless narratives do not take full account of African realities, says Nick Young
Should press be gagged when reporting parliament?
The position of the media reporting parliamentary injunction breaches is “astonishingly unclear” says Lord Neuberger. Judith Townend reports