OSCE Mission to Combat Xenophobia in Baku

Yesterday the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) held a meeting with a group of personal representatives of the OSCE. The OSCE representatives included Adil Akhmedov for tolerance and non-discrimination of Muslims, Rabbi Baker for anti-Semitism, and Catherine McGuinness to combat racism, xenophobia and intolerance against Christians and other religions.

Concerning issues of religious propaganda on the Internet, the OSCE was interested in measures being taken in Azerbaijan.

Deputy minister Elmir Valizadeh said that Azerbaijan has a defined legislative framework for these areas. He also noted that Azerbaijan joined the International Convention on Cyber Crime. The Ministry acts as a coordination structure for implementing tasks which arise from the Convention.

The sides also referred to the movie Innocent Muslims, which caused violent protests in the Muslim world.

According to Valizadeh, distribution of such films and cartoons insulting religious values ??is unacceptable. "Different sites have to be careful when placing materials, for there is no monitoring mechanism for them," said Valizadeh. -03D06-