AZERBAIJANI MEDIA SUFFERS BLOW
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[05:35 pm] 07 October, 2006
Leading editor says he is being intimidated into silence. By Elshad
Guliev and Shahin Rzayev in Baku The founder and editor-in-chief of
the two most popular newspapers in Azerbaijan, Einulla Fatullayev,
says he is closing the two publications and abandoning journalism,
after he was given a suspended jail sentence by a Baku court.
On October 3, readers of the weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the daily
Gundelik Azerbaijan read the last combined issue of the papers in
which the editors bid farewell to their readers and said they were
shutting down because of pressure from the government.
On September 26, a district court in Baku gave Fatullayev a suspended
two-year jail sentence and a fine of 5,000 manats (5,650 US dollars)
and Realny Azerbaijan was fined twice that amount. Both were found
guilty of having "insulted the honour and dignity" of the interior
minister, Ramil Usubov. An article had alleged that Usubov must have
known about the mysterious criminal gang, headed by Haji Mamedov,
operating within the interior ministry for more than ten years –
and that therefore the minister was protecting them.
Both the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the
Council of Europe have long demanded that the Azerbaijani authorities
abolish articles 147 and 148 of the criminal code, which make a
journalist criminally responsible for defamation. However, changes
have not yet been made and journalists can still be put in prison
for their articles.
Azerbaijan has earned a low rating from international organisations
for the quality and freedom of its media recently. On October 4,
opposition journalist Sakit Zakhidov was given a three-year jail
sentence for alleged drug possession in a case which critics say was
politically motivated. This year another editor, Baheddin Haziev,
was abducted and beaten up, and other journalists have complained of
intimidation and physical violence.
The authorities made no official comment on Fatullayev’s sentence,
letting it speak for itself.
But it followed a sustained campaign against the editor over the past
year. He had been fined several times, condemned in the government
media, detained at Baku airport and was also beaten up by an unknown
assailant in the centre of Baku.
Last year, Elmar Husseinov, the former colleague of Fatullayev
and editor of Monitor magazine, was murdered in mysterious
circumstances. Fatullayev, a Monitor journalist, founded Realny
Azerbaijan shortly afterwards.
Immediately after the verdict, Fatullayev himself told IWPR, "Now I
have two ways out. I can either renounce Azerbaijani citizenship and
leave the country, because I have understood that after the murder of
Elmar Husseinov, they have chosen the policy of terror against us. Or
I can go to jail and be killed. Those are the alternatives for me."
In the last few days, Fatullayev has not been contactable by
telephone and it was reported in the newspapers that he had fled
to the USA. However, Mamed Suleimanov, a colleague of Fatullayev,
said that he was still in Azerbaijan and had personally helped edit
the last edition of the newspaper, but "he is simply very tired and
therefore decided to switch off all his telephones".
Realny Azerbaijan had become the best-read political publication
in Azerbaijan in a very short space of time, with a circulation of
30,000 copies. Its daily partner had a circulation of 11,000.
Ganimat Zakhidov, editor of the opposition newspaper Azadlyq,
was critical of Fatullayev’s decision. "These newspapers were
high-circulation and they did not experience financial problems," he
wrote. "They say the reason for their closure was pressure from the
government. But if a journalist buckles under pressure and decides
to retreat I have a bad opinion of that."
Eldar Namazov, a former government official who is also a regular
author in Realny Azerbaijan, said the two papers had been the "vanguard
of the fight against human rights abuses, falsification of elections
and other illegal actions. That is why these two papers came under
such great pressure. I hope that the closure will only be temporary."
Another well-known Azerbaijani commentator Arif Yunus said the demise
of the titles was a result of a fight between two factions inside
government.
He said the newspapers were supported by one group, which included
National Security Minister Eldar Makhmudov and Emergencies Minister
Kamaladdin Heidarov – an allegation Fatullayev denied, although
his articles never criticised them. Opposing them was a group led
by interior minister and veteran presidential chief of staff Ramiz
Mekhtiev.
"I am of course against the criminal persecution of journalists
for their articles, but I think they should not have got so deeply
involved. Einulla Fatullayev and his newspapers had simply become
a pawn in the intra-clan power struggles and fell victim to them,"
said Yunus.
Pro-government political analyst Mubariz Akhmedoglu agreed that the
titles had been used by members of the elite to publish compromising
allegations about their competitors.
He said there were two possibilities, "Either one group turned out to
be stronger than the other and demanded the closure of this channel of
compromising allegations, or there was a truce between the two groups
and the group that was behind the newspapers voluntarily decided to
close them as a guarantee of the truce being observed."
Akhmedoglu also speculated that Fatullayev might have plans to lay
the groundwork for an Azerbaijani "coloured revolution" as in Georgia
and Ukraine.
"Maybe the leaders of these newspapers want to attract attention to
themselves and soon come up with a big new project," he said. "I think
Fatullayev may want to take on the role in the future of Georgia’s
Rustavi-2 or Ukraine’s Fifth Channel [which played key roles in the
revolutions in their respective countries]."
Aflatun Amashov, chairman of the Press Council of Azerbaijan, said the
news of the closures had been unexpected and he saw no reason for it,
"By law a newspaper can only be shut down by a decision of a court
and there was no question of this in the case of these newspapers. We
will watch closely how events develop."
Elshad Guliev is a freelance journalist in Baku.
Shahin Rzayev is IWPR’s Azerbaijan Country Director.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting Caucasus Reporting Service
No. 360 04-Oct-06