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 The media representative for the OSCE says she is hopeful that two Azerbaijani activists who called for antigovernment protests via Facebook will be released from prison soon, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

Dunja Mijatovic, the Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told RFE/RL she has discussed the predicament of Jabbar Savalanli and Baxtiyar Haciyev (aka Bakhtiyar Hajiyev) with President Ilham Aliyev, but didn’t specify when.

Savalanli, an opposition activist, and Haciyev, a Harvard graduate and former parliamentary candidate, were both jailed on criminal charges they regard as retaliation for their use of social media to criticize the Azerbaijani authorities. Haciyev was jailed in May for two years for evading military service, while Savalanli was sentenced in May to 2 1/2 years in jail for illegal possession of drugs.

Mijatovic rejected the argument that bloggers "are not journalists." She said her mandate extends to raising her voice on behalf of anyone imprisoned or harassed for expressing his or her views freely.

RFE/RL notes that in May, shortly after Mijatovic visited Azerbaijan, Eynulla Fatullayev, a journalist and newspaper editor who had turned into one of the symbols of Azerbaijan's crackdown on freedom of expression, was freed after spending some four years in jail.