On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, representatives of NGOs and independent journalism in Azerbaijan laid flowers to the monument chief editor of the magazine Monitor, Elmar Huseynov, who was murdered by hired assassins March 2, 2005.
Laying flowers at the memorial of Elmar Huseynov has become a tradition, not only on May 3 , but on other days of journalistic dates, said the Director of the agency Turan, Mehman Aliyev, speaking at an impromptu rally, which is also traditionally held when visiting Elmar’s obelisk.
According to him, neither the report by Freedom House, nor the Reporters without Borders report can convey the pain that Azerbaijani journalists experience, daily confronting with the suppression of freedom of speech.
"Free Press is destroyed and almost all the media have been bought and serve the interests of elite groups," said Aliyev.
A new trend in journalism is the use of media structures of elite groups in the internecine struggle. "There are proofs for this," he said.
The head of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety, Emin Huseynov, called depressing the situation in the light of the arrest of the Zerkalo newspaper columnist, Rauf Mirkadirov, and suspension of the daily edition of the publication.
Huseynov said that over the last year the institute recorded deterioration in all areas, in particular the legislative restriction of freedom of speech and judicial harassment of journalists.
At the beginning of 2014 in the country in prison were 11 journalists and bloggers, said the coordinator of the Media Rights Institute Khalid Agaliyev, calling unprecedented the pressure on the social network of bloggers over the last year.
The international human rights organization Freedom House put Azerbaijan at the 183rd place in the ranking of press freedom in the world.
The media have a further decline due to increased government control over the Internet and correspondence of journalists and bloggers; blocking sites, interference in the satellite broadcasting of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, the report notes.
All the speakers sounded the idea that in spite of the serious condition of independent Azerbaijani journalists, global trends in the Internet, new information technologies and information society offer hope for optimism. -0 -
Politics
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Head of the External Relations and Security Service of the EU Josep Borrel rejected the accusations against him and European countries made by the head of Azerbaijan at the COP29 conference the previous day.
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On Thursday, President Ilham Aliyev received the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, who arrived to participate in the COP29 climate conference.
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today issued five rulings on applications from Azerbaijan. The case of "Afgan Mammadov v. Azerbaijan" concerned the complainant's exclusion from the Bar Association. Mammadov was expelled based on a complaint filed by a colleague, which he considered unjust. The ECHR ruled that Mammadov's rights had been violated and ordered Azerbaijan to pay him €5,000 in compensation for moral damage and €1,000 to cover legal costs.
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During the ongoing COP29 climate conference in Baku on November 14, a group of activists staged a protest condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The activists also denounced countries that supply oil and weapons to nations waging aggressive wars. The protest featured placards with slogans such as: "From fossil fuels to peace!", "End war crimes!", "Punish the aggressor!", and "Phase out fossil fuel use to achieve peace!" among others.
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