11 Mar 2011 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost
Two youth opposition activists, Sakhavan Soltanli and Rashadat Akhundov, were detained in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Tuesday. On 4 March, youth activist and former parliamentary candidate, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, was detained and given a pre-trial detention of one month after he advertised a nationwide anti-government protest on Facebook. On the same day three NGOs, known for encouraging freedom of expression, were evicted from their offices by police without being given any reason.
3 Mar 2011 | Azerbaijan News, News and features
Investigative reporting is a dangerous business in Azerbaijan. On the anniversary of Elmar Huseynov’s murder, Natasha Schmidt is among those gathered in Strasbourg to call for release of independent journalist Eynulla Fatullayev
(more…)
16 Feb 2011 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost
On 14 February a journalist for the Azerbaijani newspaper Bizim yol was savagely attacked outside the President’s residence. A policeman dressed in plain clothes attacked the journalist while he was recording protesters who had assembled near the President’s officey. The police officer destroyed the unnamed journalists film during the vicious attack.
18 Nov 2010 | Azerbaijan News, Index Index, minipost
This morning Baku’s Appeal Court ordered the release of blogger Adnan Hajizade, he had served half of his two-year sentence on controversial charges of hooliganism. His co-defendent, blogger, Emin Abdullayev – known as Milli, remains in prison serving a two and a half year term.
The case of the two young Azeri bloggers sparked an international outcry. The men had been actively using social media to mobilise opposition against the government, speaking out on a variety of issues, including government corruption, misuse of oil revenues, censorship and education.
Several weeks prior to their arrest, the pair posted a video on YouTube mocking the government’s decision to spend a vast amount of money on importing two donkeys from Germany. Locals believe the tongue-in-cheek video angered the regime and was the real reason for their arrest.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe voiced concerns about the sentences and the “inevitable chilling effect on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan”.
Read more here: Donkey bloggers punished
