 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
press releases & Protests
November 28, 2006
His Excellency Ilham Aliyev
President
Republic of Azerbaijan
19 Istiglaliyat St.
370066 Baku
Azerbaijan
Your Excellency,
On behalf of the World Press Freedom Committee —an organization representing 45 press freedom groups from six continents— I wish first to congratulate you for your decision to pardon Shakhin Aghabeyli, editor-in-chief of the Milli Yol magazine, who was serving an unjust prison sentence, and second to express again our profound concern about the on-going campaign of judicial harassment and intimidation against your country’s news media.
The latest instance of this worrisome trend is the shutting down of Azerbaijan’s largest independent television channel, ANS-TV. The authorities have alleged that the broadcaster ignored “repeated warnings” about its violating the law and refusing to pay fines. But the ANS-TV head, Vahid Mustafayev, has said his company had received no advance notice from any government agency prior to the revocation of his licence.
The silencing of this essential voice of media independence in Azerbaijan sends a disturbing message to all press freedom forces in your country and abroad. Media outlets like this one constitute a critical component to a nascent democracy such as Azerbaijan’s. Without a free and independent media, government officials and corporate executives cannot be kept accountable and responsive to the rest of society. Without this essential ingredient transparency and good governance become impossible to achieve.
Another example of this official harassment against independent media were the evections of the Azadlig and Bizim Yol newspapers, and the Turan News Agency from the same Baku building where their offices were located. It was not until a few days ago that these media outlets were able to resume work, with their editors claiming that the evictions cost them some US$40,000.
As I stated in my Oct. 16 letter, all these media outlets and journalists are seeing their fundamental right to inform their audiences and readers violated by either arbitrary decisions or a storm of lawsuits based on the most effective arsenal of censoring laws at the disposal of Azeri public officials, those of defamation and insult.
Insult laws in particular are the sad legacy of autocratic regimes and have their origin in the Roman Empire, which instituted them to shield the emperor from public criticism. Criminal defamation laws also act as a Damocles sword dangling over the collective heads of the news media, forcing them to fulfill their duties to keep the public informed at the risk of being imprisoned.
International judicial entities such as the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have ruled that these laws are in direct violation of the fundamental right to free speech and to a free press, which are consecrated in Azerbaijan’s Constitution.
These institutions also have abundant jurisprudence that supports the concept that public officials should expect more, and not less, scrutiny and criticism from the rest of society. This acceptance of being a willing target of the media’s slings and arrows also implies public officials should restrain from using these laws in order to silence criticism directed at them.
The current campaign of judicial harassment against the media of your country is in direct contradiction to these principles, whose respect is essential for the functioning of a democratic society. Therefore, Mr. President, I urge you and your government to take the necessary measures to stop at once these efforts to silence the news media in your country and to honor, for the good of your citizens, the inviolate principle of press freedom.
Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
|
|
