Pressure on the press continues

The Azerbaijani authorities continue the policy to destroy and stifle the independent press in the country. Restrictions introduced on the retail sale of newspapers last year are preserved. The sale of newspapers from kiosks is also restricted artificially.

The monitoring conducted on March 2 showed that each booth is allowed to sell only 2-3 copies of the newspapers Azadlig, Yeni Musavat, Zerkalo and others. That is, the sale of newspapers in kiosks that massively sell beverages and cigarettes is formal.

We could not figure out what press distribution company delivers newspapers to kiosks. The invoices are without tax details and the supplier is not specified. Even the vendors do not know the name of the firm.

In Azerbaijan, retail sale of newspapers was limited at the end of the 1990s to limit the influence of the press and undermine its economic independence. But last fall the authorities began a new campaign of destruction of the market by getting rid of the Gasid distribution company that sold newspapers.

In Baku and other cities they began to establish new stalls, allegedly in order to improve the sales of periodicals. The Baku Mayor Hajibala Abutalibov in September 2011 stated that new stalls would adorn the capital and increase the sale of newspapers and the earnings of the editorial offices.

The head of the socio-political department of the Presidential Administration Ali Hasanov just two months after the start of the installation of new stalls said that he and the administration had no relation to these actions by the city authorities. At the same time, neither he nor the Press Council, to which the newspaper editors turned last summer, took any steps to resolve the problem.

The monitoring in the fall of last year showed that the new stalls were run by unknown persons, who created an extensive network of illegal trade with a multi-million dollar flow under the roof of the Baku City Hall with the connivance of government agencies.

In September 2012, Turan Agency filed a lawsuit to the Baku Administrative Economic Court No 1 on behalf of editors suffering losses. The lawsuit was filed in accordance with Article 24.1 of the law "On Freedom of Information" in denial of the Mayor Hajibala Abutalibov to provide information about the new kiosks. In the letter dated August 28, Abutalibov was requested to answer questions about the legal and regulatory side of the establishment of new stalls, of their legal owner, of the reason why they were used for other purposes, and of losses caused to the print media.

At the first meeting on 19 October the representative of the Department of Trade and Services of the Mayor's Office was unable to answer the questions. Moreover, the order by the Executive Power of Baku numbered 521 of 28 October 2011 on establishing new kiosks and submitted to the court showed the illegal character of the substitution of the newsstands owned by the Gasid distribution company.

The five-month litigation failed to get the required information and conduct an investigation, which would be able to shed some light on the situation. Only on 22 January this year the court partially granted the request of Turan on the newsstands located in the capital. The court ordered the Baku Executive Power to provide information about the owner of the newsstands and their quantity, and pay 10 manats of court costs. Judge Vusala Bahysheva did not grant the demand to fine the defendant at 50 to 100 manats (Article 57.1 of the Administrative Procedure Code) for not participating in the trial and for the failure to provide the requested information. She also refused to grant the petition to give to the City Hall commitments to give a complete answer to the request of the agency.

The agency intends to pursue the full answer from the City Hall through the Court of Appeal. -0 –