Azerbaijan: Attack on Journalist Prompts Fresh Concerns About Media Freedom

The recent knifing of an opposition newspaper reporter has added to ongoing international concerns about the state of press freedom in Azerbaijan.

On the evening of March 13, two unknown men knifed Agil Khalil, a correspondent for the opposition newspaper Azadlig (Freedom), as he was leaving the newspaper's Baku office. Khalil underwent surgery and has since been released from the hospital. The attack was the second for Khalil; in late February, he was badly beaten by another group of unknown assailants.

The journalist contends that the attacks are related to articles he published about the alleged sale of land from a state-owned olive grove outside of Baku. Those articles claimed that senior city government officials were selling the land privately to construction companies.

"Agil Khalil believes the attackers were hired by those officials he criticized in his articles," commented Azadlig General Director Azer Akhmedov. A criminal investigation into the attack has begun, but no suspects have been taken into custody.

The incident involving Khalil, the latest in a series of attacks against journalists over the past year, prompted sharp international criticism and protests from local media organizations. The US and Norwegian ambassadors to Azerbaijan, German diplomats and representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Baku all visited Khalil during his hospital stay.

In a statement to reporters during her March 14 hospital visit, US Ambassador Anne Derse described herself as "shocked by this terrible crime" and called for an immediate investigation and punishment of the perpetrators. Such attacks, she added, are "feeding an atmosphere of fear."

The OSCE, Reporters Without Borders, the International Committee for Protection of Journalists, opposition parliamentarians and the Azerbaijani Press Council have all echoed those concerns.

In addition to rising concern about possible physical harm, journalists in Azerbaijan complain that officials are using the judicial system to intimidate those wishing to provide independent coverage of governmental affairs. They point to the fact that three Azerbaijani journalists are doing jail time for various alleged crimes. On March 7, Azadlig Editor-in-Chief Ganimat Zahid was sentenced to four years in prison for alleged hooliganism. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. His brother, Mirza Sakit, a columnist and satirical poet for the newspaper, had earlier been sent to prison for alleged drug peddling. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the Realny Azerbaijan and Gundelik Azerbaijan dailies, was imprisoned in 2007 for "insulting the Azerbaijani people" in an article about the war with Armenia over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Supporters of the imprisoned journalists say their cases were politically motivated. The trio was not included in a list of 59 people pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev on March 18.

While opposition politicians have presented the attack on Khalil -- as well as the cases of the imprisoned journalists -- as a sign of the government's dwindling tolerance for criticism, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party itself has joined the outcry. In comments to reporters on March 14, the party's executive secretary, Ali Akhmedov, a member of parliament, called the attack on Khalil "a blow to freedom of speech in Azerbaijan." The perpetrators, he added, "have committed a provocation against Azerbaijani authorities."

In its March 11 annual report on human rights, released a few days before the attack on Khalil, the US State Department wrote that Azerbaijan's "media freedom environment significantly deteriorated during the year." The Azerbaijani government rejects such criticism, arguing that Washington is guilty of maintaining double standards. Coming in the wake of an "insufficiently tough US reaction" to the March 1 crackdown on opposition protestors in Armenia and subsequent declaration of a state of emergency, the comments, argued Ali Hasanov, head of the administration's political department, are suggestive of an American bias against Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Foreign Ministry used a similar line of reasoning in responding to American and European Union criticism of the imprisonment of Azadlig Editor-in-Chief Zahid.

One media activist in Baku said the government's distrust of a free press will not ease anytime soon. "I do not see signs that the authorities have the political will to change the situation," commented Rashid Hajily, director of the Media Rights Institute, a Baku non-governmental organization. "Without that, nothing will change."