Thirteen Years since Elmar Huseynov�s Murder

Baku / 02.03.18 / Turan: On March 2, colleagues and friends of the editor of the Monitor magazine Elmar Huseynov, who was murdered 13 years ago, visited his grave.

The Turan news agency"s director Mehman Aliyev speaking at the commemoration ceremony at Huseynov"s grave, said the journalist"s murder laid the foundation for a new, difficult stage in the history of journalism in the country.

"After 2005, the suppression of independent media and the persecution of critical journalists took an open character. Simultaneously bribery of the media, economic and judicial pressure on the press began. This practice continues to this day."

Elmar's appeals to the authorities were that the government should serve the people, and not vice versa. However, it was not heard, and today's crisis is the consequences of this policy. Today, the crisis has affected not only the press, but all spheres of life, including the morality of the society, Aliyev said,

The authorities believed that they could take full control of the entire press, but in reality it turned out differently and today the authorities have lost control over the sphere of information.

Serious media shut down, and their place was taken by immoral and corrupt scribblers. This immorality in the media was brought by the authorities. A paradox is that today the government itself does not know what to do with the press it has created. Anyone who imagines himself to be the country's chief ideologue, still tries to control the so-called press, which he created, but the authorities have lost the game, Aliyev said.

"This is the victory of Elmar's ideas, who believed that everything would once change and go in the right direction, despite the fact that everything is abnormal now," he said.

The editor of the newspaper Khural Avaz Zeynalli in his speech named Elmar Huseynov one of the most outstanding figures of the modern Azerbaijani press.

"Even his death is also a service to the freedom of our press," he said. -03C-