International rights groups condemn Azerbaijani authorities barring foreign journalists’ entry
International human rights organization Article 19 issued a statement condemning Azerbaijan's decision to bar international human rights organizations and media outlets - including the UK-based newspaper The Guardian - entry into the country to cover the 2015 European Games.
Article 19 has joined with other IPGA (International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan) members to support the Sport for Rights campaign, in the lead up to the European Games to highlight the severe crackdown on civil society that has taken place in Azerbaijan.
"Azerbaijan's banning of international human rights organisations and media outlets from reporting on the European Games demonstrates the Government's intention to use the event as a glossy façade, to cover its systemic erosion of the basic freedoms of its people,” Article 19's Executive Director stated.
There are currently more than 80 Azerbaijani political prisoners including journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and activists, while others have been forced into hiding or exile, Article 19 says.
In a statement, Index on Censorship calls on Azerbaijan to allow civil society groups and journalists to report freely on the European Games.
“Host country Azerbaijan has a dismal human rights record and has been involved in a crackdown internally on groups and individuals who speak out against the government: there are currently 80 political prisoners in jail, including award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova, human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev and pro-democracy campaigner Rasul Jafarov,” Index on Censorship points.
It is vital that external observers should be able to see and hear for themselves what is happening in Azerbaijan and the European Games provide an occasion to do just that. Sadly, journalists due to cover the games have been barred from entering the country, Index says. “This is not acceptable. Azerbaijan’s actions are in direct contravention of the Olympic Charter. The European Olympic Committees (EOC) has the responsibility to demand Azerbaijan immediately reverses its decision to bar civil society groups and journalists from the country,” adds Index.
The Associated Press writes that protests against Azerbaijan's human rights record took place in cities around the world Friday. The day before, jailed journalist Khadija Ismayilova criticized Azerbaijan's government, writing that the country was in a "human rights crisis" and beset by high-level corruption. "Things have never been worse. As those at the top continue to profit from corruption, ordinary people are struggling to work, struggling to live, struggling for freedom. And we must struggle with them, for them," said Ismayilova's letter.
The Slates points that most of the international headlines around the event are focused less on sport and spectacle than on the deplorable human rights conditions in Azerbaijan. The Netherlands, the only country bidding for the second European Games in 2019, announced that it is withdrawing its bid.
Buzzfeed also writes about Azerbaijan having 80 political prisoners and condemns the denial of entry to foreign journalists who intended to cover the European Games. Khadija Ismayilova’s mother told Buzzfeed that if her daughter is in prison, that means the authorities are scared.
Owen Gibson, The Guardian’s journalist who had been rejected accreditation to cover the European Games in Baku, writes that Reporters Without Borders ranks Azerbaijan 162 out of 180 countries for press freedom, and the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks it as the fifth most censored country in the world.
As the Games have neared, the repression appears to have intensified, Gibson writes pointing out the names of the arrested rights activists Leyla Yunus, Intigam Aliyev and Khadija Ismayilova.
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