24 Jun 2016 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, mobile, News and features
Rahim Haciyev, editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq, accepts the 2014 Index Freedom of Expression Journalism Award. (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
On 14 June, Qasid, an Azerbaijan’s state-owned media distributor warned that it will shut down the 2014 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Journalism Award-winning newspaper Azadliq by 27 June if it doesn’t pay an outstanding debt of approximately $12,000 it allegedly owes, Radio Free Europe reported.
Rahim Haciyev, acting editor-in-chief of Azadliq, told Index why it’s important to keep the paper’s journalists reporting.
Why is it important for Azadliq to continue its mission?
Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq is an independent newspaper that fights for freedom of speech in Azerbaijan. In fact, the main job of the press is to provide readers with objective information. Freedom of speech is under severe pressure from the government. We at the newspaper fight for freedom as well as provide readers with objective information. Our activity is of great importance because we are the only remaining press agency inside Azerbaijan that challenges the government.
Why is the government trying to shut down the paper?
Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq always follows the “golden rule of journalism”, which is to only serve the truth. In a country with wide-scale corruption and sharp limitations to human rights and freedom, it should not be surprising that the only newspaper that publishes articles about all of these issues is under intense pressure. It is common for authoritarian regimes to restrict the freedom of speech and expression in order to silence press outlets which provide citizens with objective information. This is what the Azerbaijani government attempts to do. The newspaper pays great attention to the problem of political prisoners and continues to do so right now. Each issue of the newspaper contains photos of political prisoners that the government would rather people forget.
How many people are still contributing to the paper’s coverage?
Rahim Haciyev: Azadliq, as a daily newspaper, is facing severe financial constraints. Our small staff of 20 journalists are working under the dual threat of government harassment and financial insecurity. We can’t hire more journalists because the state-owned news distributor, Qasid, refuses to pay the paper for sales. Right now it owes us approximately $50,000, but is demanding we pay them $12,000. At the same time, a lot of journalists don’t want to work with us because of the real personal and professional risk of being associated with an opposition newspaper.
29 Jan 2016 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, mobile, News and features
Seymur Hezi was sentenced to five years in prison for “aggravated hooliganism” on 29 January 2015.
On the anniversary of Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Hezi’s sentencing to five years imprisonment for “aggravated hooliganism,” the country’s authorities have continued to target journalists, independent media and human rights activists.
Hezi, who contributed to the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award-winning newspaper Azadliq, was sentenced on 29 January 2015. He was arrested on 29 August 2014 following an altercation in which the journalist was defending himself from a physical assault and harassment, according to his lawyers.
Rahim Haciyev, acting editor of Azadliq, told Index in September 2015 Hezi’s prosecution was due to his critical articles of the Azerbaijan authorities in the newspaper, as well as critiques he had made in his online TV programme, Azerbaijan Hour.
Haciyev said Hezi’s health is “very bad” due to the Azerbaijan’s awful prison conditions. Despite this, he said the journalist is working on articles about the country’s recent political history — some of which have been published in Azadliq.
In Hezi’s final statement given during his trial, he noted his belief in the shared struggle “with my dear friends at prison”. He also said: “It is not just a confrontation between the government and the opposition. It is the struggle between the good and the evil.”
After a year activism and journalism dedicated to free expression within the restricting country, not much positive change can be seen. Investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova remains in jail, doing everything in her power to continue spreading the message of truth and resistance. Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney recently offered to take Ismayilova’s case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Azadliq, which was one of Azerbaijan’s only remaining independent news outlets operating inside the country, was forced to discontinue publishing a daily print edition of the newspaper in July 2014, due to its financial situation. The paper was hit with enormous fines following multiple defamation suits in 2013, and its journalists — including Hezi — have been targeted by authorities with politically motivated charges.
“The repression and detainment of journalists are continuing,” Haciyev said. “[The] government has started to arrest Facebook activists.”
Haciyev said that because the government cannot solve its country’s main problems, they try to create new problems for society through eliminating any chance of other opinions being promoted.
This article was originally posted to Index on Censorship
5 Sep 2014 | Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan News, News and features
Seymur Hezi, a reporter working for Azadliq, Azerbaijan’s last independent newspaper, was sentenced to a two month pretrial detention on Monday, charged with disorderly conduct. This morning, journalist Khadija Ismayilova was detained at the Baku airport, according to the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS).
Hezi’s arrest is another sign of the continuing clampdown by Azerbaijan’s authoritarian government on civil society. The journalist was charged with an alleged attack on a person in the street, although his lawyers claim he was trying to protect himself after he had been harassed and attacked.
It is not the first time charges of hooliganism and disorderly conduct have been applied against opposition politicians, civil society activists and journalists in Azerbaijan. In previous years, the same charges were used to imprison critical journalists Sardar Alibeili and Ganimat Zahid as well as bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizadeh.
“Seymur Hezi’s arrest is a serious blow against our newspaper. He is one of the brightest Azerbaijani analysts and journalists, and a true intellectual,” Rahim Haciyev, acting editor of Azadliq newspaper, told Index.
Haciyev said he is sure Hezi’s arrest is the result of a planned provocation and the journalist is prosecuted for publishing critical articles on the authorities in the newspaper, as well as in his online TV program “Azerbaijani Hour”, which he scripts and hosts.
The journalist’s arrest came only a month after the newspaper he works for, Azadliq, was forced into suspension of publication due to financial pressure from the authorities. Now it exists only in its online version.
The authorities of Azerbaijan continue their clampdown on the civil society of the country. Well-know human rights defenders Rasul Jafarov, Intigam Aliyev, Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus are still behind bars after they were all sentenced to 3 months of pretrial detention. The office of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) was searched and sealed.
This wave of repression is connected to new legislation in place in Azerbaijan that restricts the freedom of association. In fact the new law makes it illegal for unregistered civil society organisations to receive funds for their activities.
This article was posted on 5 Sept 2014 at indexoncensorship.org
