**Updates IFEX alerts of 23 November, 19 November, 16 November, 9 November, 17 September and 16 September 1998** (RSF/IFEX) – RSF is expressing serious concern about recent events in the field of press freedom in Azerbaijan. On 16 November 1998, the police violently dispersed a picket of journalists in front of the supreme court in […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 23 November, 19 November, 16 November, 9 November,
17 September and 16 September 1998**
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is expressing serious concern about recent events in the
field of press freedom in Azerbaijan. On 16 November 1998, the police
violently dispersed a picket of journalists in front of the supreme court in
Baku. At least four journalists were injured.
The journalists were protesting against a suit brought by the head of the
presidential administration, Ramiz Mekhtiyev, against the newspaper “Yeni
Musavat”. Ramiz Mekhtiyev asked for compensation for moral damage of 400
million manat (approx. US$100,000) after the publication in the newspaper in
October of an article accusing him of “relations with the Armenians.”
On 19 November, in another case, a Baku district court imposed a 20 million
manat (US$5,000) fine on “Yeni Musavat” for having implicated Nizami
Gojayev, chief of the Investigation Department of the Interior Ministry, in
the February 1997 murder of academic Zia Buniatov.
A second independent newspaper, “Azadlyg”, is facing a libel suit brought by
the President’s brother, Djalal Aliev, who it claimed had bought expensive
property in the United Kingdom.
On 18 November, nineteen editors and journalists started a hunger strike to
protest against violence and government harassment of the media in
Azerbaijan.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the President:
talks with the strikers
Appeals To
Geidar Aliev
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Baku, Azerbaijan
Fax: +994 12 92 06 25
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.