Riot police seized protesters and pushed them into buses near Fountains Square in Baku, where the opposition had wanted to hold a rally but failed to receive approval from authorities.

One of the opposition leaders said after completion of the protest that about 1,000 people had taken part and more than 200 were arrested.

“Today’s protest has demonstrated that Azeri people want change and are ready to act for the sake of democracy,” Isa Gambar, leader of the opposition Musavat Party, told Reuters by telephone.

Police officials declined to comment on the arrests.

The police detained about 150 people at opposition rallies in Baku last month. The protests were inspired by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, but analysts believe a revolt in energy supplier Azerbaijan is highly unlikely.

Hundreds of protesters, including members of opposition parties and activists, were trying to get to the square when riot police detained them.

Demonstrators shouted “Resign!” and “Freedom!” before members of the security forces began pushing people into buses.

Some of protesters had banners saying: “Ilham, go away!,” a reference to President Ilham Aliyev.

Gambar said there would be more such demonstrations.

“Our protests will continue. It’s not ruled out that the next rally will be held on April 9,” Gambar said.

Read More »Police break up opposition rally in Azerbaijan

An unpublished book written by jailed Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik has appeared on the Internet.

Quotes from “The Imam’s Army” were posted on Twitter, Turkish Milliyet newspaper reports.

Earlier it was revealed the book contains information about a religious movement existing in the Turkish police.

Journalist Ahmet Sik is accused of membership in Ergenekon, a secret terrorist group the aim of which was staging a coup through creation of chaos in Turkey. 

Source: News.am

Read More »Unpublished book of jailed Turkish journalist appears on Internet

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, condemned today a recent attack on a newspaperman in Azerbaijan and called upon the government to take urgent action to curtail violence against journalists.

“Azerbaijan’s authorities must take pro-active measures to prevent violence against the media,” Mijatović said. “Ensuring a safe and free environment for journalists is a key OSCE commitment and I must regretfully state that the government of Azerbaijan has so far failed to meet this requirement.”

On the night of 26 March six masked individuals abducted Seymur Haziyev, a reporter with the independent Azadliq newspaper, in a village near Baku. They reportedly put a sack on his head, beat him up and threatened him with worse violence if he continued to write critically about the government policies.

One of Azerbaijan’s main printed media outlets, Azadliq has been the target of repeated attacks and other forms of intimidation in the past, including imprisonment of staffers and contributors. Haziyev himself has been threatened and physically assaulted several times in recent years.

Read More »OSCE Media Freedom Representative Condemns Attack On Azerbaijani Journalist

Due to the damage of the mainline cable the subscribers of the leading Georgian internet service provider Caucasus Online are provided global Internet with delays.
Currently users can have access to the websites registered on the servers of local providers.

Reportedly the provision of global Internet will be resumed until 21:00 pm by Tbilisi time.

Caucasus Online would like make an apology to its subscribers for the inconvenience. 

Source: Media.ge

Read More »Global Internet Provided to Georgian Users With Delays

In the very center of Tbilisi a group of up to 30 young people held an action-performance against “low-grade” TV-shows.

At Shota Rustaveli monument the rally organizers placed a dummy TV set featuring a radiation symbol on the screen. On a piece of paper anyone had a possibility to write the name of the program they disliked and place it into the “TV set”.

According to the organizers Georgian TV space is filled with low-grade programs which distorts viewers minds and thinking. Through naming the irritating programs they took the “rubbish” back to “TV”. The slogan of the rally read as follows: “Don’t litter us!” As a part of the performance the participants washed the pieces of cloth portraying human brain.

The idea of the performance comes from Facebook members. The goal was to express protest against low-grade shows in Georgian TV-media in an unordinary way and support the production of TV programming based on the respect for human rights.

“Through this performance we wanted to tell the authors of TV programs that the criticism voiced against them on social networks belongs to real people. On the other hand we urged Facebook users to show discontent in real life instead of virtual space,” said Lasha Kvantaliani, co-organizer who refrained to name any specific TV program. 

Read More »Youth Holds Action-Performance against Low-Grade TV-Shows

A new website GiveMeInfo has been launched in the Internet space. The goal of the web site is to make the flow of public information more open in Georgia.

The idea of the website belongs to Georgian journalist David Chaganava. Yet a year ago having presented the project he was named as the winner of the Social Innovation Camp Caucasus held in Tbilisi. Owing to the cash prize and thanks to the financial backing of the Open Society Georgia Foundation the website http://givemeinfo.ge was made possible.

The website content is being created by users themselves, the ones frequently requesting public information, in particular journalists and NGO representatives. Entering data is confidential. The application form on the response to the requested information requires answers to few questions.

The statistics posted on the website are divided into five main categories to detect irrelevant, ignored, incomplete, rejected, and lately responded request for public information.

Read More »Georgia: Website on Statistics of Public Information Provided by State Agencies

A new website GiveMeInfo has been launched in the Internet space. The goal of the web site is to make the flow of public information more open in Georgia.

The idea of the website belongs to Georgian journalist David Chaganava. Yet a year ago having presented the project he was named as the winner of the Social Innovation Camp Caucasus held in Tbilisi. Owing to the cash prize and thanks to the financial backing of the Open Society Georgia Foundation the website http://givemeinfo.ge was made possible.

The website content is being created by users themselves, the ones frequently requesting public information, in particular journalists and NGO representatives. Entering data is confidential. The application form on the response to the requested information requires answers to few questions.

The statistics posted on the website are divided into five main categories to detect irrelevant, ignored, incomplete, rejected, and lately responded request for public information.

Read More »Georgia: Website on Statistics of Public Information Provided by State Agencies

For the third time already, on March 25, the Freedom of Expression Day was marked in Gyumri with the initiative of the Journalists’ Club “Asparez”. Still in 2008 this day 26 million drams was collected for Gyumri based ‘Gala’ TV as a result of a telethon.

Such a telethon was needed after ‘Gala’ appeared under the unprecedented pressure of authorities in the form of fines and penalties determined by the tax bodies because of covering the opposition rallies. Due to a 5-day national donation held with joint efforts of ‘Asparez’ Club and ‘Gala’, the TV company could pay the fines and was saved from air deprivation.

4 journalists identified with their works were awarded during this year ceremony.

Read More »Video: March 25 – Freedom of Expression Day in Gyumri

Istanbul police conducted a search in the Irhaki Publishing House last night, the Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported.

The operation was launched after the police received reports that a book by Ahmet Shik, a journalist jailed recently over Ergenekon case, was going to be published.

After a search that lasted about seven hours, the police left the publishing house, not finding anything.

The director of the publishing house, Unal Kocan, expressed his astonishment over the incident.

“We don’t yet know whether or not we are going to publish the book. And the police were looking for Ahmet Shik’s book,” he said.

Earlier in March, the Turkish police detained ten individuals over Ergenekon case. Most of them were representative of mass media.

Journalists Nedim Shener and Ahmet Shik were among the detainees. Shener has published two books about the assassination of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Armenian-Turkish weekly Agos. Ahmet Shik conducted studies into the Ergenekon case. His book entitled “Imam Army” has raised interest among law enforcers. 

Source: http://www.tert.am

Read More »Turkish Authorities Ban Publication of Jailed Journalist’s Books

Pro-government Azeris living in Germany have severely beaten an Azeri journalist Fahraddin Hajibeyli. The Azadlig newspaper reports, the journalist who now is in hospital with two broken ribs said that the incident took place during the Novruz Bayram ceremony because of his publication in Azadlig concerning anti-Armenian protests in front of the Armenian embassy in Berlin last year.

“Azeris had planned a protest in front of the Armenian embassy. 4 organizations managed to bring together only 16-17 people. I criticized saying how many people it did for each organization if we divided 17 to 4, and asking how many organization would have been needed to gather 100-200 people. It was just a small sarcasm, and no offence. Organizations dealing with diaspora, reported Baku that they had had a mighty and glorious action and dishonored Armenians all over Europe,” said Hajibeyli.

He accused the Head of the Azerbaijan House in Germany Tofig Garaev in beatin him. “On the Novruz ceremony day he pushed me. Men standing with him attacked me and started kicking and hiting me,” the journalist said and added that he was going to sue the Head of Azerbaijan House.

Panorama.am

Read More »Azeri Living In Germany Sues The Head of The Azerbaijan House