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Azerbaijan has embarked on a major PR drive to sell a story of promise and growth of the country, that appeals easily to European business and is eager to strike lucrative oil and gas contracts with Europe, which seeks energy security, writes the influential British newspaper The Guardian in an article entitled “Azerbaijan's free speech is a PR myth.”

But, as the newspaper says, the facts are these: the country's president, Ilham Aliyev, is the son of the last president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, and the family has ruled the republic since a coup in 1993. President Aliyev doesn't even bother with the formalities of switching to prime minister for a term, says The Guardian. In 2009, the two-term limit on the presidency was lifted via a referendum.

International observers have been critical of all the elections held in Azerbaijan since independence as the opposition demonstrations have repeatedly been met with police violence, and there have been widespread allegations of torture and ill-treatment of persons in custody.

Apologists for the ruling regime of Azerbaijan will tell you that the last presidential election was not "quite as bad" as the ones preceding it, but, as the British newspaper notes, all have been marred by violence, intimidation, allegations of fraud and suppression of dissent. Last year, Reporters Without Borders reported that journalists and bloggers in Azerbaijan work in a climate of impunity and under persistent pressure from the authorities.

“It's embarrassing, to say the least, for those who want to befriend this energy-rich republic. Responding to the April incident, the European parliament's president Jerzy Buzek called for the release of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan, and stressed that Azerbaijan's relationship with the EU “would become even stronger with more progress on human rights and political freedoms,”” it is said in the publication.

The editor of the British magazine The Spectator Fraser Nelson thinks that the Eurovision victory of Azerbaijan will spark some sort of outpouring of tolerance and social reform in the country. “You don't need to look far to see how short-sighted this is: the post-Soviet states Ukraine and Belarus provide ready examples... We cannot be blind to what is happening in Azerbaijan simply because it suits us. History shows that such strategies often end badly for western powers, too,” notes The Guardian.

As the British politician Geoffrey Robinson writes, journalism is not a profession, but the exercise of the right to free expression available to every citizen. “Azerbaijanis do not have this right," says the British newspaper at the end.