Human Rights Watch has published the World Report of events that took place in 2010. This 21st annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2010 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with domestic human rights activists. The report also focuses on media freedom in these countries.
AZERBAIJAN
Media Freedom
Government officials initiated 26 criminal defamation cases against journalists and other critics in the first half of 2010; courts delivered 14 sanctions. In addition officials filed 36 civil defamation claims, 30 of which were successful. For example, in February 2010 a Baku court convicted Ayyub Karimov, editor in chief of the Femida 007 newspaper, of slander and ordered him to pay a fine, in response to a Ministry of Internal Affairs complaint regarding Karimov’s articles criticizing the ministry. Also in February Ministry of Education officials filed a criminal complaint against Alovsat Osmanli, a mathematician, for articles in the Azadlig newspaper criticizing the ministry for mistakes in mathematics textbooks.
Human Rights Watch has published the World Report of events that took place in 2010. This 21st annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2010 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with domestic human rights activists. The report also focuses on media freedom in these countries.
AZERBAIJAN
Media Freedom
Government officials initiated 26 criminal defamation cases against journalists and other critics in the first half of 2010; courts delivered 14 sanctions. In addition officials filed 36 civil defamation claims, 30 of which were successful. For example, in February 2010 a Baku court convicted Ayyub Karimov, editor in chief of the Femida 007 newspaper, of slander and ordered him to pay a fine, in response to a Ministry of Internal Affairs complaint regarding Karimov’s articles criticizing the ministry. Also in February Ministry of Education officials filed a criminal complaint against Alovsat Osmanli, a mathematician, for articles in the Azadlig newspaper criticizing the ministry for mistakes in mathematics textbooks.
In July a court sentenced Eynulla Fatullayev, chief editor of two newspapers and an outspoken government critic, to an additional two-and-a-half years in prison on spurious drug charges brought by prison authorities. Fatullayev was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison in 2007 on charges of fomenting terrorism and other criminal charges, which were widely believed to be politically motivated. In April the ECtHR found that Azerbaijan “grossly” and “disproportionately” restricted freedom of expression by imprisoning Fatullayev and ordered his immediate release. In October the decision became final after the court’s Grand Chamber refused to admit the government’s appeal. Fatullayev remains imprisoned at this writing.
Political activists and bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade who were victims of an apparently staged attack in July 2009 and subsequently convicted of hooliganism were released in November 2010 after serving over half of their sentences.
Several journalists suffered physical attacks by police and others; the government failed to meaningfully investigate these incidents. In February a police officer attacked Leyla Ilgar, a correspondent for the Yeni Musavat newspaper, as she reported at a local market. Police interrogated her and deleted the photographs from her camera. In May police detained Seymur Haziev, a reporter for the Azadlig newspaper, at an opposition rally in Baku. Haziyev was questioned without his lawyer, charged with resisting arrest, and sentenced to seven days imprisonment. Haziyev reported that two officers kicked and hit him periodically during the interrogation.
In July unidentified men attacked Elmin Badalov, a reporter for Yeni Musavat, and Anar Garayli, the deputy editor of Milli Yol , while they took photographs for an investigative story about luxury villas near Baku believed to be built by the transportation minister. In August an unidentified assailant stabbed Rasul Shukursoy, a sports writer for Komanda newspaper, in the arm. Shukursoy links the incident to his article criticizing a famous football player.
Police interfered with journalists’ efforts to document public protests. In June as police broke up a Baku demonstration by opposition party Musavat, they also shoved journalists and prevented them from filming. In July presidential administration guards detained and erased the recordings of four journalists filming a protest by Sabirabad region residents complaining about the government’s response to severe flooding in southern Azerbaijan.
In May Baku airport security forced Norwegian journalist Erling Borgen to place his camera and recorded DVD footage in his checked bags. Upon arrival in Oslo Borgen discovered that all footage from his visit to Azerbaijan for a documentary on Eynulla Fatullayev had disappeared.
In February the parliament approved amendments to several laws that ban media representatives from videotaping, photographing, or audio recording without a subject’s prior knowledge or consent, except in “operative-investigative cases” carried out by law enforcement. In June the government placed restrictions on street newspaper vending in central Baku, allegedly for aesthetic reasons, limiting many newspapers’ distributions and revenues.