Gadirli: Azerbaijani bloggers and journalists equally need protection

Representatives of the Azerbaijani blogosphere find unsound the authorities' statements that bloggers are not journalists and arrest of them cannot be regarded as a violation of the freedom of speech.

Earlier, on August 24, Ali Gasanov, head of the public-political division of the administration of the president of Azerbaijan, stated in his comments on the appeals of the international organizations to release the imprisoned bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Gadjizade that bloggers are not covered by journalists' guarantees. Still earlier, a similar idea was announced by Aflatun Amashev, chairman of the Board of Press of Azerbaijan.

Erkin Gadirli, co-founder of the public association "REAL" (Republican Alternative), who is running his blog on the Internet, opposes this position. The Azerbaijani legislation has no and should not have the notion of "a blogger", as legislation cannot regulate everything. The bloggers' activity is regulated through general guarantees of the freedom of expression; while the responsibility for it is stipulated by the Civil Code, he believes.

Another well-known local blogger Ali Novruzov also finds inappropriate any differentiation of the notions "journalist" and "blogger". Estimating the situation in the blogosphere, he has noted that after arrest of Milli and Gadjizade this sphere began rapidly developing. "The bloggers' arrest had no negative effect - no self-censorship happened. On the contrary, the number of critical blogs went up," he said.

Lawyer Rasul Dzhafarov, an expert from the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), believes that bloggers should be same safeguarded against any criminal prosecution for their publications, audio, photo and video materials as journalists.