The U.S. Department of State has launched its fourth annual “Free the Press” campaign as part of the Department’s efforts to honor the fundamental importance of a free and independent media in the days leading up to World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
As in years past, the Department will profile on a daily basis journalists or media outlets that are censored, attacked, threatened, disappeared or otherwise oppressed because of their reporting.
On Thursday Marie Harf, Department's an acting spokesperson highlighted two cases of imperiled journalists in Swaziland and Azerbaijan, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"The first comes from Azerbaijan, where 12 journalists and bloggers remain detained or imprisoned on government orders. Among the 12, Mr. Hilal Mammadov has been imprisoned since 2013. There he is on the screen. He was arrested in 2012 on charges of treason, incitement of ethnic hatred, and drug possession, and sentenced to five years in prison in 2013."
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considers his detention arbitrary, and has requested his immediate release in March 2014.
A number of international human rights groups have also called for his release.
"We join them in calling for the immediate release of him and other journalists and bloggers who were incarcerated for simply exercising their right to freedom of expression. We call for an end to all such prosecutions and other forms of pressure on the independent press, and for Azerbaijan to honor its commitments to freedom of expression," she said.—0--
Politics
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On November 14, the House of Commons of the UK Parliament held a hearing on "Academic Freedom and Corruption in Azerbaijan's Energy Sector," focusing on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. The event, organized in collaboration with Global Witness and the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, was moderated by Joe Powell, head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption.
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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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