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“The authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev relied on imprisonments and an atmosphere of impunity to suppress independent journalism,” Committee to protect journalists released Attacks on the Press 2010 report, where a touch critics is made for Azerbaijan.

The authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev relied on imprisonments and an atmosphere of impunity to suppress independent journalism. Aliyev, who essentially inherited the presidency of the strategic Caspian Sea nation from his father, used the country's vast oil and gas resources to play off the competing interests of traditional partners Russia and Turkey with those of newer allies such as the European Union and the United States.

Throughout the year, U.S. and European leaders courted Aliyev in hopes of building a pipeline that would take Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea gas reserves through Turkey to the rest of the continent. The move would have broken Russian control of gas exports to Europe. But Russian leaders countered by signing contracts with Aliyev that essentially bought up most of the country's oil and gas surplus. This diplomatic rivalry bolstered Azerbaijan's economy during the global recession and allowed it to ignore Western criticism of its human rights and press freedom abuses.

Confident that it could withstand international pressure, the government continued to imprison Eynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 CPJ International Press Freedom Award recipient. The editor of two now-closed newspapers, Fatullayev was imprisoned in April 2007 on a series of fabricated charges, including terrorism and defamation, in retaliation for his investigation into the 2005 murder of his boss and mentor, Elmar Huseynov. He was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Read the original report here.