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 Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the unacceptable escalation in harassment of the media by the authorities in Nakhchivan, especially last week’s expulsion of radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Yafez Hasanov, RWB official release says.

Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot in Nakhchivan during the next month, “it will cost you,” they told him.

“After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan’s authorities are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already complete repressive arsenal against the media,”Reporters Without Borders said.

“Their latest invention, deporting a journalist from his own country to one that criminalizes journalism, shows a complete contempt for legal appearances and a feeling of complete impunity. How far will they have to go before the central government and the international community decide to do something to half this escalation?”

There was no comment from the government in Baku in response to her comments about human rights violations in this remote province. The deafening silence makes an international reaction all the more urgent, so that violations of this kind do not spread to the rest of the country.

Reporters Without Borders joins Nasibova and other journalists and human rights activists in urging the national media and foreign embassy personnel to go to Nakhchivan in order to shed light on these unacceptable practices.