{"id":46820,"date":"2013-05-24T10:50:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T09:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=46820"},"modified":"2017-03-28T10:45:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T09:45:23","slug":"in-azerbaijan-authorities-use-harlem-shake-to-silence-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=46820","title":{"rendered":"In Azerbaijan, authorities use &#8216;Harlem Shake&#8217; to silence activist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The recent arrest of Ilkin Rustamzadeh highlights how Azerbaijan&#8217;s authorities use trumped up charges to silence messages they are not comfortable with, blogger <strong>Ali Novruzov<\/strong> writes from Baku.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-BmdkU3HUkk\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On 17 May, Rustamzadeh, a university student and member of the \u201cFree Youth\u201d organisation, was arrested for a \u201cHarlem Shake\u201d video posted on YouTube. It did not matter that Rustamzadeh had no part in posting it or any of the other huge number of videos contributing to the viral dance meme.<\/p>\n<p>Charged with hooliganism as well as disturbing public order for allegedly being involved with the video\u2019s organisation, Rustamzadeh was immediately handed him two-month pre-trial detention.\u00a0According to Rustamzadeh\u2019s lawyer, investigators in the case have linked him to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-BmdkU3HUkk)\">\u201cHarlem Shake\u201d video<\/a> filmed on Baku Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p>While Rustamzadeh has not created viral videos, he has been active in a grassroots campaign calling for investigation into frequent Azerbaijani soldier deaths. In 2012, 97 people <a href=\"http:\/\/deyerler.org\/150141-2012-ci-ildj-jsgjr-glgmljrinj-dair-statdstdka.html\">were killed,<\/a> and between the start of this year and 23 April, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/azeri\/azerbaijan\/2013\/04\/130423_noncombatant_death.shtml\">there have been<\/a> 29 deaths. The campaign has also been calling for the government to put more preventative measures in place.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign\u2019s activists have been targeted by the government with waves of arrests and a counter-campaign against members of the group. There have even been allegations made that this grassroots campaign is actually <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/04\/how-to-prepare-for-an-election-in-azerbaijan\/\">the work of external forces<\/a>, like the National Democratic Institute.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Today on Index<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/05\/elena\/\">Putin&#8217;s war on dissent in Russia<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/05\/free-expression-in-the-news-15\/\">Free expression in the news<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Student Competition<\/strong><br \/>\nThink you have what it takes to be published by Index on Censorship? Here\u2019s your chance to find out. Enter our blogging contest for a chance to win \u00a3100. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/05\/index-on-censorship-student-blogging-competition\/\"> More &gt;&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Index on Censorship Events<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/03\/10-june-caught-in-the-web-how-free-are-we-online\/\">Caught in the web: how free are we online? June 10, 2013<\/a><br \/>\nThe internet: free open space, wild wild west, or totalitarian state? However you view the web, in today\u2019s world it is bringing both opportunities and threats for free expression. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/2013\/03\/10-june-caught-in-the-web-how-free-are-we-online\/\">More &gt;&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent arrest of Ilkin Rustamzadeh highlights how Azerbaijan&#8217;s authorities use trumped up charges to silence messages they are not comfortable with, blogger <strong>Ali Novruzov<\/strong> writes from Baku.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8867,4059],"tags":[5551,115,129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46820"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88408,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46820\/revisions\/88408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}