PACE calls Azerbaijani authorities to respect freedom of mass media

The situation in Azerbaijan with the freedom of the press continues to worsen; the country sees the practice of persecuting journalists by law enforcement bodies on fabricated criminal charges. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports from Strasbourg that it was stated on January 27 by Miklos Harasti, special representative of the OSCE for the freedom of mass media at a press conference in the headquarters of the Council of Europe (СЕ).

Mr Harasti gave the criminal case of young bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade as an example. "In spite of the fact that they became victims of an incident and suffered, they were brought to criminal liability," he said.

He has noted that during 6 years of his work in the position of special representative of the OSCE for the freedom of mass media he visited Azerbaijan many times and met President Ilham Aliev three times; however, "the situation with freedom of mass media in the country has worsened."

At the same time, Mr Harasti has expressed his conviction that "President Aliev can stop the criminal prosecution of journalists by law enforcement bodies." Moreover, in his opinion, "law enforcers should be reminded that they are called to protect journalists, not to persecute them."

Having positively referred to the start of debates in Azerbaijan on the law on defamation, Mr Harasti noted, at the same time, that it would be more expedient first to stop the practice of prosecuting journalists on criminal charges.

When asked to comment on the situation with the freedom of press in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (NAR), Mr Harasti said that he knew about the "heavy state of things there." "The situation in this region both geographically and politically is very difficult," he said. "While in general in Azerbaijan we see elements of authoritative ruling, in the NAR we can speak about complete authoritarianism."

In his turn, Andrew McIntosh, a British MP, a member of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education and Rapporteur of the Assembly on the Freedom of Mass Media, said that 2 years ago he was in Baku and met President Aliev. According to his story, Mr Aliev assured him that "there were no problems, and within 6 months all the remaining issues would be settled." "However, two years have passed, but we see no changes," said Mr McIntosh.

In the evening on January 27, the PACE discussed and adopted the report "Respect of the Freedom of Mass Media" by Andrew McIntosh, where Azerbaijan is listed among the countries with problems with the freedom of the press.