Blogger Emin Milli is taken into court (Credit: RFE/RL)
A Baku court today sentenced two opposition bloggers to prison in a case that has highlighted declining media freedoms and curbs on civil society in Azerbaijan. Emin Milli, 30, and Adnan Hajizada, 26, received sentences of two and two-and-a-half years, respectively.
The verdict came on the same day as a round table affirmed international concern over the case and over the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of President Ilham Aliyev’s government, including its closure of independent media outlets and threats to curb civil society groups.
The case sparked an international outcry and U.S. dilomats specifically raised it in discussions with Aliyev.
The bloggers were arrested after Hajizada’s organization, a youth group, Ol, posted a video in which a donkey holds a press conference detailing the wonderful life donkeys enjoy in Azerbaijan. Ol is a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy.
The case typifies the anxiety with which authoritarian regimes are viewing new forms of social media, like blogs and Twitter, says Kenan Aliyev, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani director.
The case has further undermined the credibility of the country’s political institutions, including a judicial system that had been the focus of considerable amounts of Western democracy assistance, particularly from the European Union, to improve rule of law in the oil-rich nation.
“So, this is life. … We understand how oppressive the system is,” NGO leader Erkin Gadirli told RFE/RL. “We will simply do what we believe is right in this situation, but we don’t have much hope of getting a particular result.”
The prosecution has been condemned by democracy and human rights groups. It has also been suggested that it sends the wrong signals to Azerbaijani youth likely to be denied freedom of expression through new media that young people elsewhere take for granted.
“This is saying to that cream of the crop of young people that you can’t express yourself,” Miriam Lanskoy, a senior program officer at the NED, said recently.
Recent Comments