Azerbaijan police stops opposition action for press freedom

The country's government property agency is demanding through the courts that the Azadlyg (Freedom) bloc's eponymous newspaper vacate its offices, a move seen by the opposition bloc as politically motivated and aimed at stifling freedom of the press in the country.

The protesters gathered near a metro station in the center of the capital Baku, and began moving toward the presidential administration building before being stopped by police.

Ten people were arrested and the action was halted.

The press service of the People's Front of Azerbaijan, a party of the Azadlyg bloc, said the protesters had gathered within 300 meters (985 feet) of the presidential administration building, as permitted by law.

A member of the party said earlier that the city administration had proposed an alternative site for the demonstration on the outskirts of the city, but that the opposition had turned the offer down.

Freedom of the press in oil-rich Azerbaijan has aroused international concerns. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Europe's largest security organization, has criticized the republic's authorities for persecuting journalists.

At a news conference in Azerbaijan October 10, OSCE representative Miklos Haraszti said the situation with freedom of the press in the country was deteriorating, Azerbaijan's APA news agency said.

He said four journalists were either in prison or had received suspended sentences for libel, and several more journalists were on trial.

An opposition journalist and chief editor of the Monitor magazine, Elmar Guseinov, was murdered in March 2005 in front of his house in Baku. A former Interior Ministry official pleaded guilty to the killing this July, and said a former economics minister, Farkhad Aliyev, had been the paymaster, Radio Liberty said. RIA Novosti