Azerbaijan

2010

  

A defiant Azerbaijan rebuffs Fatullayev appeal

New York, December 30, 2010–Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev’s motion to be freed pending his appeal of a drug conviction, the Turan news agency reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists has concluded the drug charge was falsified as a means of keeping Fatullayev in jail despite European Court of Human…

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Iran, China drive prison tally to 14-year high

Relying heavily on vague antistate charges, authorities jail 145 journalists worldwide. Eritrea, Burma, and Uzbekistan are also among the worst jailers of the press. A CPJ special report

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Five of 17 journalists released from Cuban prisons give a press conference on their arrival in Madrid in July. They have since told CPJ they suffered torture in jail. (AP/Paul White)

With 145 journalists behind bars, what’s in a number?

Today we released our annual census of imprisoned journalists around the world, citing 145 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of nine from 2009 figures. The tally begs the question, What’s in a number?

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Fighting bogus piracy raids, Microsoft issues new licenses

CPJ has documented for several years the use of spurious anti-piracy raids to shut down and intimidate media organizations in Russia and the former Soviet republics. Offices have been shut down, and computers seized. Often, security agents make bogus claims to be representing or acting on behalf of the U.S. software company Microsoft.

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Azerbaijan releases blogger; two reporters still in prison

New York, November 18, 2010–After the Baku Appeals Court released blogger Adnan Hajizade today, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Azerbaijani authorities to release two other imprisoned journalists, Emin Milli and Eynulla Fatullayev. Both Milli and Fatullayev have their appeals pending at the same court.

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Fatullayev (IRFS)

Azerbaijan must immediately release Eynulla Fatullayev

New York, November 15, 2010–While the Azerbaijani Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the country will uphold the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights decision to immediately release editor Eynulla Fatullayev, he remains in jail. The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for his immediate release.A November 5 decision by the Baku Appeals Court said the…

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CPJ, press groups: Release Eynulla Fatullayev

Dear President Aliyev: We are writing to express our strong concern regarding the continued imprisonment of Editor-in-chief Eynulla Fatullayev, which constitutes a breach of Azerbaijan’s international legal obligations and a violation of Mr Fatullayev’s rights.

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In Azerbaijan, imprisoned blogger denied freedom

New York, July 27, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by an Azerbaijani court’s decision to deny early release to jailed video blogger Adnan Hajizade, and it called on the appeals court to set him free. 

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Court slams Fatullayev with another prison sentence

New York, July 6, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s decision by Azerbaijan’s Garadagh District Court in Baku to sentence imprisoned independent editor Eynulla Fatullayev to two and a half years in a strict-regime prison after finding him guilty of drug possession. Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, has already served more than three years of an…

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CPJ condemns farcical Azerbaijan trial

We issued the following statement today after the Azerbaijani independent agency Turan reported on the testimony of two inmates who allegedly saw imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev take drugs. Fatullayev was charged with drug usage shortly before the European Court of Human Rights acquitted him of all earlier trumped-up charges and ordered his immediate release.

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2010