U.S. Urges Azerbaijan To Release Journalists, Bloggers (video)

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--