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The spokesperson for the US Department of State, Marie Harf, on the eve of World Press Freedom Day on May 3 announced about continuing the Free the Press annual campaign in an effort to support the fundamental importance of free and independent press. According to the information of the campaign, there are 12 journalists and bloggers detained or imprisoned in Azerbaijan on government orders, the US Department of State website reads. 

During the press briefing Harf announced that among the arrested journalists is Hilal Mammadov who has been imprisoned since 2012 on charges of treason, incitement of ethnic hatred, and drug possession, and sentenced to five years in prison in 2013. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considers his detention arbitrary, and has requested his immediate release in March 2014. A number of international human rights groups have also called for his release.

''We join them in calling for the immediate release of him and other journalists and bloggers who were incarcerated for simply exercising their right to freedom of expression. We call for an end to all such prosecutions and other forms of pressure on the independent press, and for Azerbaijan to honor its commitments to freedom of expression,'' the spokesperson for the US Department of State said.

According to the Economist Group website that repressions against journalists are increasing on the eve of the European games. Azerbaijan has used its energy riches to enlist powerful friends in Europe and America. Besides, Azerbaijan has allowed the Americans to use its bases to attack Muslim extremists in Afghanistan. This may help to explain why Azerbaijan was allowed to act as chair of the Council of Europe, a Strasbourg-based human rights body, for six months in 2014, even as it jailed dissenters.

It is also noted in the material that president Aliyev’s bigger headache is the economy: ''The fall in global oil prices has hurt Azerbaijan’s finances. Energy makes up around 95% of the country’s exports and 40% of its GDP. Inflation is rising and the government’s attempts to prop up the local currency, the manat, have largely failed. Payment of civil servants’ salaries has been delayed. The government blames it all on the European games.”

News outlet Silk Road Reporters writes that this month Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has issued very strict rules for accrediting foreign journalists in Azerbaijan during the upcoming European Games. According to the new rules, to be accredited for the European Games, every journalist will have to provide the Foreign Ministry with their photo, letter from management of his company, a copy of the passport and a business card, as well as his autobiography – which then may either be approved or rejected. Besides, the Ministry reserves the right to refuse accreditation to any journalist. Among possible reasons for denial are past visits to Nagorno Karabakh.

“With regard to the situation in Azerbaijan, the accreditation here could be used as a tool to restrict access to all necessary information. It could be bureaucratic obstacles that do not allow journalists to use the information in full,” Azerbaijani media lawyer Alasgar Mammadli said.

It is noted in the article that previously such decisions about special accreditation rules for foreign journalists in Azerbaijan were introduced during parliamentary and presidential elections. “In 2013, I was a correspondent for the BBC and covered the presidential elections in Azerbaijan. Like other foreign journalists I had to get accreditation. For my work, I often visited different countries to make reports, but in Azerbaijan, I had to show accreditation documents everywhere. It got to the point of absurdity,'' freelance journalist Teimuraz Kighuradze says adding that the same thing happened during the coverage of opposition rallies or when the journalist wanted to get an interview with some officials. ''And I know that if you do not have accreditation, it is absolutely impossible to work in Baku,” he concludes.

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