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PRESS WATCHDOG 'APPALLED' AT EXPULSION OF AZERI REPORTER FROM NAKHICHEVAN
asbarez
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Reporter Yafez Hasanov
NEW YORK--The press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
issued an announcement Tuesday decrying the recent abduction and
expulsion of Azeri reported, Yafez Hasanov from Nakhichevan.
Below is the RSF announcement:
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the unacceptable escalation in
harassment of the media by the authorities in Nakhchivan, an autonomous
Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and Iran, especially last week's
expulsion of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reporter Yafez Hasanov.
Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in
plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials
normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to
return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot
in Nakhchivan during the next month, "it will cost you," they told him.
"After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan's authorities
are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already
complete repressive arsenal against the media," Reporters Without
Borders said.
"Their latest invention, deporting a journalist from his own country
to one that criminalizes journalism, shows a complete contempt for
legal appearances and a feeling of complete impunity. How far will
they have to go before the central government and the international
community decide to do something to half this escalation?"
Hasanov had gone to the Julfa district of Nakhchivan to investigate
Turac Zeynalov's death in detention, a story that the local authorities
are trying at all costs to suppress because it exposes the cruelty
of the methods they use. Hasanov's abductors told him not to meddle,
took his passport and returned it with an exit stamp when they reached
the border. Once inside Iran, Hasanov managed to return to Baku by
taxi the next day. This entailed a degree of risk as RFE/ RL has been
classified as an "illegal organization" by the Iranian authorities.
Malahat Nasibova (Ð~\аÐ"аÑ...аÑ~B Ð~]аÑ~Aибовa), a
Nakhchivan-based reporter for the independent news agency Turan,
has meanwhile been subjected to intense pressure since receiving a
summons from the Ministry of National Security (MNS) for trying to
interview members of the Zeynalov family.
She and her husband have received death threats by telephone and SMS
in recent days. After she reported that an MNS official had called
her an "enemy of the people," the official's mother threatened her
yesterday outside her home. "Who are you to quote my son's name on
the Internet," the woman said. "You will see what I can do to you. You
can do nothing against us. The MNS supports us."
At a news conference on 2 September, Nasibova described the Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic as a "laboratory of repression" for the rest of
the country. "The repressive methods tested in Nakhchivan are then
applied on a larger scale throughout Azerbaijan," she said. "It was
in Nakhchivan that demonstrators were first confined to a psychiatric
hospital. It was in Nakhchivan that journalists were kidnapped for
the first time."
There was no comment from the government in Baku in response to her
comments about human rights violations in this remote province. The
deafening silence makes an international reaction all the more urgent,
so that violations of this kind do not spread to the rest of the
country.
Reporters Without Borders joins Nasibova and other journalists
and human rights activists in urging the national media and foreign
embassy personnel to go to Nakhchivan in order to shed light on these
unacceptable practices.
asbarez
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Reporter Yafez Hasanov
NEW YORK--The press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
issued an announcement Tuesday decrying the recent abduction and
expulsion of Azeri reported, Yafez Hasanov from Nakhichevan.
Below is the RSF announcement:
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the unacceptable escalation in
harassment of the media by the authorities in Nakhchivan, an autonomous
Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and Iran, especially last week's
expulsion of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reporter Yafez Hasanov.
Hasanov was abducted on 31 August by three unidentified men in
plain-clothes using the kind of car that government security officials
normally drive. They drove him to the Iranian border and told him to
return to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku via Iran. If he set foot
in Nakhchivan during the next month, "it will cost you," they told him.
"After death threats and intimidation, Nakhchivan's authorities
are displaying exceptional inventiveness in expanding their already
complete repressive arsenal against the media," Reporters Without
Borders said.
"Their latest invention, deporting a journalist from his own country
to one that criminalizes journalism, shows a complete contempt for
legal appearances and a feeling of complete impunity. How far will
they have to go before the central government and the international
community decide to do something to half this escalation?"
Hasanov had gone to the Julfa district of Nakhchivan to investigate
Turac Zeynalov's death in detention, a story that the local authorities
are trying at all costs to suppress because it exposes the cruelty
of the methods they use. Hasanov's abductors told him not to meddle,
took his passport and returned it with an exit stamp when they reached
the border. Once inside Iran, Hasanov managed to return to Baku by
taxi the next day. This entailed a degree of risk as RFE/ RL has been
classified as an "illegal organization" by the Iranian authorities.
Malahat Nasibova (Ð~\аÐ"аÑ...аÑ~B Ð~]аÑ~Aибовa), a
Nakhchivan-based reporter for the independent news agency Turan,
has meanwhile been subjected to intense pressure since receiving a
summons from the Ministry of National Security (MNS) for trying to
interview members of the Zeynalov family.
She and her husband have received death threats by telephone and SMS
in recent days. After she reported that an MNS official had called
her an "enemy of the people," the official's mother threatened her
yesterday outside her home. "Who are you to quote my son's name on
the Internet," the woman said. "You will see what I can do to you. You
can do nothing against us. The MNS supports us."
At a news conference on 2 September, Nasibova described the Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic as a "laboratory of repression" for the rest of
the country. "The repressive methods tested in Nakhchivan are then
applied on a larger scale throughout Azerbaijan," she said. "It was
in Nakhchivan that demonstrators were first confined to a psychiatric
hospital. It was in Nakhchivan that journalists were kidnapped for
the first time."
There was no comment from the government in Baku in response to her
comments about human rights violations in this remote province. The
deafening silence makes an international reaction all the more urgent,
so that violations of this kind do not spread to the rest of the
country.
Reporters Without Borders joins Nasibova and other journalists
and human rights activists in urging the national media and foreign
embassy personnel to go to Nakhchivan in order to shed light on these
unacceptable practices.