Sunday, February 10, 2013

Azerbaijan is the wrong place to hold a forum on internet freedom | Ian Brown

1:46 AM | Posted by ProJ | | Edit Post

The government has been fierce in their attacks against journalists and bloggers. The UN should choose more carefully next time

free speech was at the head of the agenda this week in Baku at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), an annual report of the United Nations "multi-stakeholder" meeting . The IGF has done in less democratic states, such as pre-Arab Spring, Egypt, and was created by the UN World Summit on the Information Society held in Tunis (and Geneva ). But the government of Azerbaijan has been particularly vicious in their attacks against journalists and bloggers.

Fatullayev, editor of Azerbaijan, was imprisoned in 2007 for criticizing the government - after suffering beatings and abductions of his father. Fatullayev recently won the 2012 UNESCO World Press Freedom. In 2011, the government threatened activist Elnur Majidli 12 years in prison for "inciting hatred" (call for public protests via Facebook).

  • human rights activist and blogger Emin Milli, already attacked and jailed for "hooliganism", wrote a widely circulated letter this week to President Ilham Aliyev, warning that "the Internet is not free and Azerbaijan is certainly no fear. "Visit the European Commissioner Neelie Kroes, gave a powerful speech by saying" these repressive restrictions on freedom of the press, of any kind are unacceptable ... The members of the Council Europe, including Azerbaijan, must comply with the rules that have committed. I want to convey this message to the President of Azerbaijan. "
supporters of Azerbaijan will host the Eurovision Song Contest this year said it would draw attention to the abuses of the regime of human rights. Unfortunately, this does not seem to occur to a significant degree. Does the presence of senior government officials, the Internet industry, figures and civil society activists in Baku this week to do a better job of improving human rights?



EU aid and investment in the country could be a more concrete form of the European Commission and Member States to put more pressure on the Aliyev regime. Maybe the UN should ensure that 2012 is the last year that an event of such importance to the freedom of expression in a country that has such a questionable commitment that fundamental right.


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