Media Situation in Azerbaijan in Spotlight of OSCE Conference

The XI South Caucasus OSCE conference "Public television in the digital age" is taking place in Tbilisi these days.

Conference participants from the European Union and post-Soviet countries discuss challenges and strategic choices in an era of transition to digital broadcasting, the position and prospects of public broadcasting in the South Caucasus, values and content, legal and financial issues of public TV.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of Expression, Dunja Mijatovic, addressing the participants, noted the need to achieve "real public service broadcasting to the public and at the expense of society."

She also found it necessary to touch on the situation in Azerbaijan, which has a record number of imprisoned journalists and bloggers.

"Azerbaijan is the only country that has not allowed any representatives of civil society to come to the event," said Mijatovic, referring to the arrest of the photojournalist and blogger Mehman Huseynov at the Baku airport.

During the discussion the Director of Turan IA Mehman Aliyev called violation of the principle of "serving the truth" the main problem of Azerbaijani journalism. This principle is spelled out in the professional ethical code of the country's journalists. Violation of pluralism, balance and objectivity in the media has become commonplace and is directed to disorientation of the audience and the public opinion.

According to him, this situation has been achieved as a result of the loss of the economic freedom of media, and the judicial power pressure of the authorities, and most importantly, the desire of the state to take full control and management of media space. Currently, the number of imprisoned journalists and bloggers in Azerbaijan has reached 17.

The representative of the Press Council of Azerbaijan Azer Hasrat, commenting that statement, said that among those arrested there are mostly Islamists, as well as the perpetrators of various kinds of offenses and acts of non-journalistic activities.

Intervening in the debate, Mijatovic said that in reality the arrests are made on political grounds for criticizing the government. "I've talked many times on this issue with President Ilham Aliyev and the department head Ali Hasanov. Then it was managed to release a number of journalists," she said, noting the constructive character of such steps.

The representative of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Kamran Hasanov also emphasized the absence of evidence on the prosecution of journalists for defamation. "We are also working on a project to decriminalize defamation, but in contrast to the Venice Commission that wants a comprehensive solution, we stand for the phased implementation of the law," he said.

Hasanov also emphasized the government's concern about journalists, media development, solving technical issues and social media.

Armenian and Georgian experts also noted problems in the area of defamation and harassment of journalists in their countries. In Armenia, since the beginning of the year, there have been 7 cases of physical pressure on journalists and 14 lawsuits have been filed against them.

In Georgia the pressure on journalists and editors from the officials is also noted, but thanks to the presence of the balance in the political system of power and opposition, media pluralism is ensured. In both countries there are no journalists arrested for whatever reasons. -0-