EurasiaNet.org
Jan 30 2015
Azerbaijan: Are Rumors Replacing News in Azerbaijan?
January 30, 2015 – 1:33pm, by Nargiz Rashid
The media climate is growing so grim in Azerbaijan that some observers
are reminded of an old Soviet-era adage that just about the only safe
topic for public discussion is the weather.
A government crackdown over the past year, carried out in the wake of
the Euromaidan revolution that toppled the government in Ukraine, has
muzzled independent voices and public critics of President Ilham
Aliyev’s administration in Azerbaijan.
The crackdown is continuing unabated. Earlier in January, the
alternative news site Mediaforum.az announced its closure. It blamed
complicated new requirements for receiving grants; rules, it alleged,
had prevented the site from receiving financing. The online entity
Channel 13, which once posted some 15 video stories a day, also has
shut down.
“Our bank accounts were frozen and we could not receive money from our
donors,” Channel 13’s former general manager, Anar Orujov, told
EurasiaNet.org. “We had to stop working.” Orujov now studies abroad.
Other outlets have been forced to close offices in Baku and shift
operations outside Azerbaijan.
One of the main sources of in-depth news about Azerbaijan, the
US-government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL), now
covers the country only out of its headquarters in Prague. In late
December 2014, representatives of the general prosecutor’s office
raided and shut RFERL’s Baku bureau. Some 40 reporters were forcibly
detained and interrogated without the presence of a lawyer.
Prior to the closure of RFERL’s bureau, Berlin-based Meydan TV, an
outlet known for outspoken criticism of the Aliyev administration,
opted to close its own Baku office in an effort to shield its
reporters from official harassment.
The action against RFERL followed the December 5 arrest of RFERL
investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova on charges of inciting an
attempted suicide. [Editor’s note: Ismayilova also has worked for
EurasiaNet.org]. Ismayilova and international media watchdogs maintain
the arrest was politically motivated. On January 27, a court extended
Ismayilova’s pre-trial detention by two months, until April 5.
Officials and government supporters dispute the notion that the Aliyev
administration strives to cut off the free flow of information. Zahid
Oruj, an unaffiliated MP who tends to support ruling Yeni Azerbaijan
Party positions, insisted that foreign-funded media organizations such
as RFERL do not enjoy a sufficient level of popularity among Azeri
listeners to be a concern to the government. Oruj also claimed that
the new restrictions on foreign financing for non-governmental
organizations are intended promote transparency.
Meanwhile, at a recent news conference in Berlin, President Aliyev
declared that freedom of speech in Azerbaijan is “guaranteed 100
percent.”
To buttress their claims, Aliyev and others point out that roughly
three-quarters of Azerbaijan’s roughly 9.42 million citizens have
Internet access. Outside reports on Azerbaijani media, however,
contend that while greater freedom exists in social media, residents
outside of urban centers still have relatively limited access to the
Internet. And prosecution for criticism of the government, even on
social media networks, is an ever-present risk.
Despite the inhospitable operating environment, Mehman Aliyev,
director of the Turan news agency, a regular government critic, holds
out hope that free speech will prevail. Azerbaijani citizens widely
use social media to share the views of those who think independently
from the government, he noted. A video of expatriate Azerbaijani
blogger Habib Muntazir shouting in Berlin at President Aliyev, calling
on the president to free political prisoners is one case in point.
“There will be new alternatives to emerge,” predicted Turan’s Aliyev.
Closing the country’s “information space” will “not be possible.”
While the Internet may indeed be untamable, that’s not stopping the
government from trying to harness it, according to independent
political analyst Zardusht Alizade. “There are lots of new websites
that have emerged and are mostly funded by the government itself to
fill in the information gap and manipulate public opinion,” Alizade
said. The government’s goal with these websites, he claimed, is to “to
manipulate information as was done during the Soviet era.”
Under the circumstances, Internet-borne rumors can sometimes gain the
currency of news. This trend is particularly noticeable concerning
developments on the frontline separating Azerbaijani and Armenian
forces, said Aynur Elgunesh, a journalist who is now at Meydan TV
after working for 17 years in Azerbaijani print media. Although a
ceasefire technically governs the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Armenian
and Azerbaijani troops routinely engage in firefights along the
frontline.
“Rumors from the frontline have become, I’d say, more credible for
readers than [reports from] news media.” said Elgunesh.
Editor’s note:
Nargiz Rashid is a pseudonym for a freelance journalist who
specializes in covering Azerbaijan.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/71846