CPJ blasts Azerbaijan over trampling press freedom, blacklist

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released its annual Attacks on the Press report, slamming Azerbaijan for oppressing journalists and blacklisting visitors to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

“As Azerbaijan prepared to assume the 2014 chairmanship of the Council of Europe—the largest European intergovernmental human rights and democracy organization—the authoritarian regime of President Ilham Aliyev shamelessly trampled on press freedom at home. The authorities continued to stifle critical voices, target free expression on the Web, and sentence reporters to lengthy prison terms. A local journalist was barred from leaving the country to pick up his journalism prize in Norway, while dozens of foreign media personnel were declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan,” the Committee notes in the report.

“The harassment, including by the government-affiliated press, of investigative journalist Khadija Ismailova went unpunished. Aliyev extended criminal defamation laws to the Internet and tightened funding restrictions for domestic NGOs, including press freedom organizations, despite a domestic and international outcry. In June, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso offered Aliyev public support instead of holding the leader responsible for human rights and press freedom violations in his country. In October, the authoritarian leader was re-elected to his third term after the Central Elections Commission denied registration to opposition candidate Rustam Ibragimbekov,” the report said.

“After a June travel ban on photojournalist Mehman Huseynov, which prevented him from accepting an international journalism award in Norway, Azerbaijan's foreign ministry issued a list of foreign nationals—among them 67 journalists and media workers—who are barred from entering the country,” the report stressed.

On August 2, Azeri Foreign Ministry published the notorious blacklist, which includes Slovak politician Frantişek Mikloşko, Argentinean parliamentarian Jose Arbo, Russian expert Andrey Areshev, Baroness Caroline Cox, opera star Montserrat Caballé and many other famous personalities.