In meeting, delegation presses for Fatullayev’s freedom
Washington, January 20, 2010—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met today with Azerbaijani Charge d’Affaires Khazar Ibrahim at the Azerbaijani Embassy to deliver a letter carrying the names of more than 500 international journalists petitioning for the immediate release of imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award.…
Petitioners urge Azerbaijan to free Eynulla Fatullayev
President Aliyev: The Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to open a new page in your government’s policies toward the independent and opposition press, one that would demonstrate tolerance for the critical role of media in a democracy. No other action would contribute to this goal as much as the immediate release of Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the now-closed independent Russian-language weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the Azeri-language daily Gündalik Azarbaycan, who has been imprisoned since April 2007 on charges that range from defamation to terrorism.
Fatullayev to be tried on new charge in Azerbaijan
New York, January 4, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists demanded today that Azerbaijani authorities scrap a new trumped-up charge against imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev, above, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award. On December 30, Fatullayev was charged with drug possession after prison guards allegedly found heroin in his cell. On New Year’s…
Azerbaijan trumps up new charge against Fatullayev
New York, December 30, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a new criminal charge filed against imprisoned Azerbaijani editor Eynulla Fatullayev, a 2009 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award. Based on Fatullayev’s account and the government’s long record of persecuting the editor, CPJ believes the charge to be fabricated.
Seen and heard at CPJ benefit: ‘The pen is not broken’
Small in stature but strong in her words, Naziha Réjiba tells a reporter of all the things the Tunisian government does to try to frighten her. But Réjiba said that she will not be scared, that she will never allow such tactics to have power over her. Editor of Kalima, an online news Web site blocked in…
Honored for their work, threatened at home
CPJ introduces 2009 International Press Freedom Awardees Washington, November 19, 2009—Naziha Réjiba, editor of the Tunisian online news journal Kalima, said she knows what to expect when she returns home—surveillance, harassment, and threats conducted by one the world’s most repressive governments.
Attacks on the Press in 2008: Azerbaijan
The Georgia-Russia crisis in August diverted international attention from another strategically important Caucasus country–oil-rich Azerbaijan. The authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev, gained a new term in a flawed October 15 vote. Aliyev, who effectively inherited the presidency from his father, Heydar, in 2003, defeated six virtual unknowns after top opposition parties boycotted the October vote to…
Attacks on the Press 2007: Azerbaijan
AZERBAIJAN Ignoring international opinion, the authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev clamped down on opposition and independent media and became the world’s fifth-leading jailer of journalists, with nine reporters and editors behind bars when CPJ conducted its annual census on December 1. On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, CPJ ranked the oil-rich Caspian Sea…