In Azerbaijan, new human rights campaign dated to IGF launched

In Azerbaijan, participants of the campaign "Sing for Democracy", held to draw attention to the problems with human rights in connection with the song contest "Eurovision 2012" in Baku, intend to organize new public campaign, preliminary entitled "Internet networks in the name of democracy". The campaign is timed for the upcoming Global Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is held under the auspices of the UN, scheduled for November.

During the campaign, the local activists intend to draw attention not only to the problems with the Internet in Azerbaijan, but also, in general, to the problems with human rights.

According to Emin Guseinov, Director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Azerbaijani human rights organizations have done a lot during the campaign "Sing for Democracy"; however, the campaign has failed to achieve great success, since political prisoners and journalists remain in prison, and the overall situation has not been improved.

"We will continue to focus on these and other problems," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Emin Guseinov, one of the initiators of the completed campaign "Sing for Democracy" and the launched campaign "Internet network in the name of democracy".

According to him, the official start of the new campaign will be given in mid-June.

When characterizing the Internet sphere, Rasul Djafarov, the ex-coordinator of the campaign "Sing for Democracy" and one of the initiators of the new campaign "Internet network in the name of democracy", the head of the Club for Human Rights, outlined two problems: persecution of single active users of social networks and lagging of the very Internet infrastructure.

"Unfortunately, at present, we have four Internet dissidents. The young activist Bakhtiyar Gadjiev was arrested in March 2011 for calls in social networks to participate in protest actions and was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment on charges of evading military service. Talekh Khasmamedov was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment on charges of disorderly conduct and disobeying the police after he regularly wrote in social networks about operation of an organized criminal grouping, connected with local law enforcement agencies, in the Udjar Region," said Rasul Djafarov.

"Vugar Gonagov, Executive Director, and Zaur Guliev, Editor-in-Chief of the Regional 'Khayal TV' Channel, were arrested for their posting on social networks the scandalous statements of Rauf Gabibov, the former head of the Guba Region, which caused protest actions in the city of Guba held on March 1. We believe that all four social networks users are being persecuted for freedom of expression," stated Rasul Djafarov.

"In many districts, the Internet's speed is very low. Besides, in Azerbaijan, prices on the Internet are set up at the high level. Thus, unlimited Internet package with speed of 1 Mb/s costs 18 manats, and it is more than 20 US dollars, and that is much higher than in neighbouring Turkey and Russia. Furthermore, in reality, users get not 1 Mb/s, but a lower speed," said Rasul Djafarov.

Besides, according to the activist, Azerbaijan has a state monopoly on providing the Internet traffic.

Rasul Djafarov also emphasizes that, while Azerbaijan has no widespread practice of blocking websites and filtering the Internet, in certain cases, the government can put pressure on the providers to close in turn the access to the opposition websites.

Azerbaijani authorities declare the full freedom of the Internet and its dynamic development.

"In Azerbaijan, free broadband internet access operates. In recent years, intensive development of information and communication technologies in the country has contributed to the expansion of the Internet and brought Azerbaijan into a number of leading countries in this sphere," said Ali Gasanov, Chief of the Social and Political Department of the Administration of Azerbaijani President, delivering his speech on May 2 at "roundtable" in Geneva, organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to discuss the situation with the freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.

Ali Gasanov has stated that, according to the report of the World Economic Forum, at present, the number of Internet users in Azerbaijan is more than 50 percent of the population of the country.

"More than 30 Internet providers render services in this sphere. At present, in Azerbaijan, the number of high-speed broadband Internet approaches 30 percent of the population of the country, and that is 2.5 times higher than the world average. The number of domains, registered in the domain zone '.az', has increased by 4.5 times and exceeded 12,000. During last four years, the volume of entry and exit of the Internet traffic has multiply increased and charges for using of the Internet services reduced," emphasized Ali Gasanov.

Nushiravan Magarramli, the head of the Azerbaijan's National TV Council, also denies information about restrictions on the Internet. According to him, in Azerbaijan, TV and radio broadcasting is not licensed, and the country has 30 on-line TV Channels and 100 Internet portals.