Radio Liberty Condemns Blocking of Its Website in Azerbaijan

Baku/15/.04.17/Turan: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty stated that one of Azerbaijan’s biggest internet service providers appears to be blocking access to RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service website, a major source of independent news for the country.

According to the statement, the latest blockage by Delta Telecom began on March 27 and is documented in an April 10 report by the non-profit digital security services group Qurium. Delta Telecom is one of only two providers licensed by the Azerbaijani government to connect international internet traffic, according to Freedom House. The blockage affects internet traffic to the websites of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service and independent media outlets Meydan TV and the newspaper Azadliq.

RFE/RL President Thomas Kent condemned the blockage as a “flagrant abuse of power by Azerbaijani authorities to obstruct RFE/RL’s mission to provide independent information and reporting to audiences in Azerbaijan.”

“Azerbaijan is rated as “Not Free” in the 2016 Freedom House Freedom of the Press rankings, and journalists are regularly detained and harassed by government officials. RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service continues to gather and report the news from RFE/RL’s headquarters in Prague for its website and remains a vital alternative to Azerbaijan’s government-controlled press,” the statement says.

The Azerbaijani authorities earlier denied the creation of any problems for access to these Internet resources.    -16D-