OSCE media freedom representative condemns sentencing of journalist, says Azerbaijan media under serious threat

"Media freedom in Azerbaijan is under growing pressure from the authorities. With Fatullayev, the number of journalists in prison in the country rises to five. Unfortunately, all cases have been based on arbitrary, politically motivated charges, and handled in disregard of the principles of free speech," said the Representative.

The Yasamal District Court sentenced Fatullayev to two and a half years' imprisonment for "libeling and damaging the reputation of inhabitants of the village of Khojali and of the Army of Azerbaijan" in a web forum comment two years ago. During the court hearings, Fatullayev insisted his name had been misused by an unknown author of the comment.

On 6 April, in a civil procedure, Fatullayev was ordered to pay a high fine for the same alleged offence. Additionally, one of his newspapers was also fined for this, although it never published the remarks.

The Representative's Office continues to follow the fate of the other imprisoned journalists, Faramaz Novruzoglu, Sakit Zahidov, Rafiq Tagi and Samir Sedagetoglu, who were convicted for similarly long prison terms, or have been kept indefinitely in pre-trial detention.

"In all these trials, criminal provisions were used in order to suppress discussion of political, historical or religious issues in the press." Haraszti said.

In what Haraszti described as an alarming development, Uzeyir Jafarov, a co-worker at Realny Azerbaijan, was brutally attacked on 20 April, shortly after the imprisonment of Fatullayev. Jafarov is currently in hospital and remains in serious condition.

Haraszti will be visiting Azerbaijan this week to take part in an event of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Convention on the role of media in developing tolerance and mutual understanding.

The OSCE representative added that he hoped to be able to discuss media freedom issues with Azerbaijani officials. OSCE