The landslide winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Sweden’s Loreen, has thwarted Azerbaijan’s attempts to use the competition to whitewash its record on free speech.
Prior to the competition, the Euphoria singer had met Azerbaijani activists, and was quoted as saying: “Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things.”
On the night of the Eurovision final, there was huge support for Index’s petition on Azerbaijan with tweets from Stephen Fry, Graham Linehan, Owen Jones and Caitlin Moran and political support from Lord Ken MacDonald QC, Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir and MEPs Edward McMillan-Scott, Richard Howitt, Nessa Childers and David Martin.
The petition is just short of 4000 signatures – if you haven’t signed it – please sign now: Azerbaijanpetition.org
Azerbaijani fans of Sacha Baron Cohen are out of luck if they are interested in seeing his latest movie, The Dictator. In the film Baron Cohen plays corrupt dictator Admiral General Aladeen, a character inspired by the late eccentric Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The only cinema playing the film in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, cancelled screenings of the film Wednesday for “technical reasons”.
Azerbaijan’s own corrupt president, Ilham Aliyev, seems to share some of Admiral Aladeen’s hunger for crushing democracy. Security forces have cracked down on protests in the lead up to tomorrow night’s Eurovision song contest, which is taking place in Baku this year.
The dictator’s family (Aliyev’s, not Aladeen’s) are noted for their lavish tastes: two years ago, £30m worth of luxury property in Dubai was bought in the name of Heydar Aliyev, the president’s then 11-year old son. Meanwhile, daughter Leyla Aliyeva runs her own glossy lifestyle magazine, Baku, published by Condé Nast. The country has spent 100s of millions of dollars on hosting Eurovision.
Read more about Azerbaijan’s less than dazzling human rights record here.
For all of us who support and defend freedom of expression and a free press, it is encouraging indeed to see that the ability of governments with bad or dubious human rights records to whitewash their image and promote their international profile through hosting big sports, arts and music events is on the decline. (more…)
