Masaryk university

6.3 2010: developments and reactions

The year 2010 had fewer events concerning freedom of expression. During the year President signed 2 amnesty decrees pardoning in total 164 prisoners. Among them was the editor in chief of the main opposition newspaper “Azadliq”. However, one of the cases closely followed by international observers was still continuing despite ECtHR ruling which found violation of freedom of expression in the case and demanded to release Fatullayev. National court had to abide the ECtHR decision, but new charges on drug possession included into the case in 2009 which were not considered in appeal to ECtHR, resulted in additional 2.5 years of imprisonment term for Fatullayev. Following such developments, Committee of Ministers of CoE urged authorities to execute ECtHR’s judgement (Azadliq Radiosu 2010b). EU released a statement: “Supporting the statement of the OSCE Representative on the Freedom of the Media issued on 22 April 2010, the European Union calls on Azerbaijan … to immediately release Mr. Fatullayev” (Spanish Presidency of the European Union 2010). Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, in the press conference held in Baku after meetings with authorities said: “The officials convinced me that Fatullayev’s case will be resolved soon. Otherwise, I am going to appeal to a broad international community for assistance”. (Azadliq Radious 2011a). Finally, Fatullayev was included into the list of pardoned prisoners in another amnesty decree signed by Ilham Aliyev in May 2011 and he was released. Implementation document for 2010 did not mention this case in sections concerning media freedom, though the document contains a rather unspecified indication of “questionable judicial proceedings against media representatives” (Implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2010 Country report: Azerbaijan: 4). While visiting Baku in January 2011 Barroso dedicated much of his speech to growing energy cooperation between EU and Azerbaijan and the issue was merely mentioned (Barroso 2011a)

Another topic regarding freedom of expression, which had been raised several times by various organizations, was adoption of law on defamation. Particularly OSCE and Council of Europe were persistently encouraging Azerbaijani government to make decisive steps in this direction. Although, Ombudsman proposed parliament to commence legislative process on the law, no progress was made in 2009. Some parliamentarians considered that law on defamation strips off human rights protection of its primary features – honour and dignity (Azadliq Radiosu 2010c). The necessity of decriminalisation of defamation was expressed by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (Council of Europe 2010). OSCE Baku Office initiated a joint project with Press Council with the aim to accelerate the process on defamation law (APA 2010b). President Ilham Aliyev also made statement in regard to defamation proposals. Foremost, he criticized biased stance of Council of Europe on Azerbaijan’s internal issues and considered the pressures on the government unjustifiable. Nevertheless, Ilham Aliyev expressing tolerance of the government to “critical and insulting articles” welcomed suggestions to adopt a law on defamation, yet denouncing “excessive politicization of internal problems” by some media outlets (APA 2010c).

6.4 2011: developments and reactions

The most discussed issue in 2011 was the murder of Rafiq Tagi, a publicist and journalist. It was the second case of journalist killing after Elmar Huseynov was shot dead in 2005. However, Rafiq Tagi had served a sentence being convicted in “incitement to national, racial and religious hatred” in 2007. Back then, in solidarity with other international organizations European Union also expressed its concern (German Presidency of the European Union 2007). Being pardoned by President Aliyev, Rafiq Tagi continued his journalistic activity and published a series of articles criticizing Islamic clerks consequently, he received continuous threats⁴² and stabbed to death in 2011. In his last interview Rafiq Tagi suspected his anti-islamic publications could be a reason of attack (Azadliq Radiosu 2011b). Ali Hasanov expounding government’s position on the murder stated that Rafiq Tagi had never been in conflict with authorities (Azadliq Radiosu 2011c). However, European Parliament chided Azerbaijani government for the lack of clear condemnment of threats and fatwa pronouncing his death. Additionally, the Parliament expressed concerns over minimal coverage of the case in the state-funded media and called authorities to comply with its international commitments, particularly the protection of the right to freedom of expression (European Parliament 2011). Despite the calls for effective and transparent investigation, authorities failed to bring killers to justice and the case was closed (APA 2014).

In March 2011, Seymour Khaziyev, the correspondent of the main opposition newspaper “Azadliq”, was kidnapped and beaten (APA 2011a). In April, another journalist of “Azadliq” Ramin Deko reported that he was abducted and beaten by unknown people. Although authorities launched investigation, it ended up with no result. Ali Hasanov noted that in several cases such incident are simulated in order to exaggerate and distort actual state of media environment in the country (APA 2011b). American journalist Amanda Ericson and British human rights activist Celia Davies were assaulted in Baku (APA 2011c). The perpetrators were detained and sentenced. The Implementation document covering 2011, mentions these events: “… there were documented reports of beatings, assaults and abductions of journalists in … Azerbaijan”. However, the EU has not included any recommendation or call to the government in this regard. But the document requires from the Azerbaijani leadership to abolish criminal liability for defamation and insult (Implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in Azerbaijan Progress in 2011 and recommendations for action: 4). Despite the statement from Ali Hasanov, which expressed possibility of such legislation in 2011, eventually no progress was achieved (APA 2011d).

During the visit to Brussels in June 2011, Ilham Aliyev met with Barroso and Herman van Rompuy. Barroso drew attention to importance of political reforms: “We believe that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are extremely important and must be addressed in the context of our relations” (Barroso 2011b). EaP goals including “democratic principles and practise, the respect for human rights good governance and rule of law” had been a matter of discussions between Aliyev and Van Rompuy (Van Rompuy 2011).

President Ilham Aliyev had a different point of view on the relations between Azerbaijan and European institutions. In the interview to Al-Jazeera Ilham Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan has democratic institutions, free press and internet as the outcomes of democracy building processes. Concerning EU relations he said: “Azerbaijan voluntarily joined European Union’s Eastern Partnership programme. We did it, again I would like to mention that, voluntarily. Nobody forced us to do. All these are signs of our strategic choice”. However, to the question of the interviewer about the European Parliament’s resolutions condemning Azerbaijani authorities on violations of freedom of expression and human rights, Ilham Aliyev answered more subtly: “Frankly speaking, we in most of the cases just ignore this kind of unfriendly steps. But we discuss it very seriously with our partners - in those organizations which initiate this kind of moves against Azerbaijan. In this case there should be no double standards…” Further, the President criticized European institutions on the lack of standard approach to all countries of the region and accused EU in the use of double standards by exaggerating minor issues in Azerbaijan and ignoring serious violations in Armenia (Aljazeera 2011).